Boris Johnson: I beg to move,
ThatanHumble Address be presented to Her Majesty expressing the deepest sympathies of this House on the death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the heartfelt thanks of this House and this nation for his unfailing dedication to this Country and theCommonwealth exemplified in his distinguished service in the Royal Navy in the Second World War; his commitment to young people in setting upthe Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, a scheme which has touched the lives of millions across the globe; his early, passionate commitment to the environment; and his unstinting support to Your Majesty throughout his life.
It is fitting that on Saturday, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh will be conveyed to his final resting place in a Land Rover which Prince Philip designed himself, with a long wheelbase and capacious rear cabin, because that vehicle’s unique and idiosyncratic silhouette reminds the world that he was above all a practical man, who could take something very traditional, whether a machine or, indeed, a great national institution, and find a way, by his own ingenuity, to improve it, to adapt it for the 20th and 21st centuries.
That gift for innovation was apparent from his earliest career in the Navy. When he served in the second world war, he was mentioned in dispatches for his
“alertness and appreciation of the situation”
during the battle of Cape Matapan, and he played a crucial role in helping to sink two enemy cruisers. But it was later, during the invasion of Sicily, that he was especially remembered by his crewmates for what he did to save their own ship. In a moment of high danger, at night, when HMS Wallace was vulnerable to being blown up by enemy planes, he improvised a floating decoy, complete with fires to make it look like a stricken British vessel, so that the Wallace was able to slip away and the enemy took out the decoy.
He was there at Tokyo bay in 1945, barely 200 yards from the Japanese surrender on the deck of USS Missouri, but he was not content just to watch history through his binoculars. It seemed that he used the lull to get on with repainting the hull of HMS Whelp, and throughout his life—a life that was of necessity wrapped from such a young age in symbol and ceremony—one can see that same instinct to look for what was most useful and most practical and what would take things forward.
He was one of the first people in this country to use a mobile phone. In the 1970s, he was driving an electric taxi on the streets of London—the forerunner of the modern low-carbon fleet—again, a vehicle of his own specifications. He was not content just to be a carriage driver. He played a large part in pioneering and codifying the sport of competitive carriage driving. If it is true that carriage driving is not a mass-participation sport—not yet—he had other novel ideas that touched the lives of millions, and developed their character and confidence, their teamwork and self-reliance.
It was amazing and instructive to listen on Friday to the Cabinet’s tributes to the Duke and to hear how many Ministers were proud to say that they or their  children had benefited from taking part in his Duke of Edinburgh Award schemes. I will leave it to the House to speculate on who claimed to have got a gold award, and who a bronze, but I believe that those Ministers spoke for millions around the world and across this country who felt that the Duke had in some way touched their lives—people whose work he supported in the course of an astonishing 22,219 public engagements; people he encouraged and people, yes, whom he amused. It is true that he occasionally drove a coach and horses through the finer points of diplomatic protocol, and he coined a new word—dontopedalogy—for the experience of putting your foot in your mouth. It is also true that, among his more parliamentary expressions, he commented adversely on the French concept of breakfast; he told a British student in Papua New Guinea that he was lucky not to be eaten and the people of the Cayman Islands that they were descended from pirates; and he said that he would like to go to Russia except that, as he put it,
“the bastards murdered half my family.”
But the world did not hold it against him. On the contrary, they overwhelmingly understood that he was trying to break the ice, to get things moving and to get people laughing and forget their nerves. To this day, there is a community in the Pacific Islands that venerates Prince Philip as a god, or a volcano spirit—a conviction that was actually strengthened when a group came to London to have tea with him in person. When he spoke so feelingly about the problems of overpopulation, humanity’s relentless incursion on the natural world and the consequent destruction of habitat and species, he contrived to be at once politically incorrect and also ahead of his time.
In a quite unparalleled career of advice, encouragement and support, he provided one particular service that I believe we in the House know in our hearts was the very greatest of all. In the constant love he gave to Her Majesty the Queen as her
“liege man of life and limb”,
in the words he spoke at the coronation, he sustained her throughout this extraordinary second Elizabethan age—now the longest reign of any monarch in our history. It was typical of him that, in wooing Her Majesty —famously not short of a jewel or two—he offered jewellery of his own design. He dispensed with the footmen in powdered wigs. He introduced television cameras, and at family picnics in Balmoral, he would barbecue the sausages on a large metal contraption that all Prime Ministers must have goggled at for decades, complete with rotisserie and compartments for the sauces, and that was, once again, a product of his own invention and creation.
Indeed, as an advocate of skills, craft, science and technology, this country has had no royal champion to match him since Prince Albert, and I know that in due course, the House and the country will want to consider a suitable memorial to Prince Philip. It is with that same spirit of innovation that, as co-gerent of the royal family, he shaped and protected the monarchy through all the vicissitudes of the last seven decades and helped to modernise and continually to adapt an institution that is above politics, that incarnates our history and that is indisputably vital to the balance and happiness of our national life.
By his tireless, unstinting service to the Queen, the Commonwealth, the armed forces, the environment, millions of young people and not so young people  around the world and countless other causes, he gave us and gives us all a model of selflessness and of putting others before ourselves. Though I suspect that he might be embarrassed or even faintly exasperated to receive these tributes, he made this country a better place, and for that he will be remembered with gratitude and with fondness for generations to come.

Keir Starmer: In supporting the Humble Address, I would like to echo the remarks made by the Prime Minister and, on behalf of my party, to come together today in appreciation of a life well lived, a life of service and of duty, and a life that shaped modern Britain and provided much needed stability to our national story.
My thoughts, first and foremost, are with Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family. Prince Philip was a man of many titles—Duke of Edinburgh, Lord High Admiral, a royal Commander, Baron of Greenwich—but above all he was a much loved father, grandfather and great grandfather. To Her Majesty the Queen he was not only her beloved husband, but, in her words, her “strength and stay” for seven decades, so it is right that, today, this House and the country come together to pay tribute not just to a man, but to the virtues he personified, and to his ceaseless optimism about the country Britain can be and what the British people can achieve.
The life of Prince Philip was extraordinary, lived in a century on fast-forward and a time that saw world war, a cold war, the fall of empire, 20 Prime Ministers, and the invention of the television, the internet, artificial intelligence and technology so extraordinary it might have seemed to a lesser person as if from another world. Throughout that time, the monarchy has been the one institution in which the faith of the British people has never faltered. As we have seen once again in recent days, the royal family has a connection with the British people that runs as deep today as it did when Philip Mountbatten married the then Princess Elizabeth in 1947. That is not by chance; it reflects the quiet virtues, the discipline and the sacrifices we commemorate today.
My own connection to the Duke of Edinburgh began long before I entered this place. Like millions of other children, I—aged 14—started the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, or the DofE, as we called it. My first activity was to volunteer at a local mental health hospital where, unbeknown to me at the time, my late grandad would later be admitted. My final activity was wandering around Dartmoor in a small team, with a compass and a map in the pouring rain, frantically trying to find our way. Mr Speaker, if that doesn’t prepare you for coming into politics, nothing will.
In recent days, I have been struck by the countless stories of lives turned around by the DofE Award—young people who found their confidence and found their way. This was summed up by a 14-year-old girl who said, on passing her bronze award, that she felt:
“I can do anything now.”
The DofE Award now covers 130 countries and has helped millions of people around the world. It is perhaps the best symbol of the Duke’s global legacy. He was also patron to more than 800 charities and organisations. He was the first president of the World Wildlife Fund. He was the patron of the British Heart Foundation. He was president of the British Academy of Film and Television  Arts, and he was chancellor of the Universities of Cambridge, Edinburgh, Salford and Wales. He carried out, as has been said, a staggering total of more than 22,000 solo engagements, and countless others alongside Her Majesty the Queen.
The Duke will also be remembered for his unstinting support of our armed forces. It was in Dartmouth in 1940 that he graduated as a naval cadet. As the Prime Minister has described, he went on to a distinguished naval career. Today, the British armed forces mourn one of their greatest champions.
The Duke was a funny, engaging, warm and loving man. He loved to paint. His work has been described, characteristically, as
“totally direct, no hanging about. Strong colours, vigorous brushstrokes.”
He was also a great lover of political cartoons—not something the Prime Minister and I can say often. Although I saw a cartoon this weekend that I think captured this moment of national and personal loss perfectly. It depicted Her Majesty dressed in black, looking back at her shadow and seeing the Duke standing there, as ever at her side, attentive and holding her hand.
Britain will not be the same in the Duke’s absence. For most of us, there has never been a time when the Duke of Edinburgh was not present. At every stage of our national story for the last seven decades, he has been there, a symbol of the nation we hope to be at our best, a source of stability, a rock.
Her Majesty once said:
“Grief is the price we pay for love.”
The Duke loved this country and Britain loved him in return. That is why we grieve today. But we must also celebrate him: a life lived in vigorous brushstrokes, like his painting, and we offer up this tribute, “To the Duke of Edinburgh, for a lifetime of public service, the gold award.”

Ian Blackford: Let me begin by echoing the warm and thoughtful words of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, and, indeed, the Father of the House, who have spoken before me.
Since the news emerged last Friday of Prince Philip’s death, the time has been filled with genuine sorrow right across these islands. For myself and for the people throughout Scotland, my thoughts and prayers remain with the entire royal family, but most especially with Her Majesty the Queen. For most people, the response and the reaction have been very simple and purely human. We collectively grieve for a wife who has lost her husband, a mother who has lost her life partner and her constant companion after a remarkable 73 years of marriage.
In the past few days, across our institutions and across the media, there has been a very public marking and mourning of the passing of the Duke of Edinburgh. These tributes have come from every corner of the world. I am very conscious, though, that the scale of public commemoration does not diminish the depth of private grief. At the very heart of this is a family grieving the loss of a beloved husband, a father, a grandfather and a  great-grandfather—a man who was at the very centre of their family life. As with every death, following the funeral, that loss and absence will be felt all the more. It is right that we seek to remember and respect that loss and the need for private mourning in the days, weeks and months ahead.
When it comes to reflecting on the life of Prince Philip, there is no shortage of material. His was a remarkable life packed full of experience and involvement spanning across diverse communities and continents. That life and those experiences were made possible by probably his most defining trait—a devotion to duty.
Already today in this Chamber and across the airwaves for the past few days, there have been great insights into that long life and the period of history in which he had a presence or a part. From military service to the promotion of environmental causes or his patronage of more than 800 organisations, there is a long and lasting legacy on which to reflect. It would be impossible to encapsulate all of it in any remarks, so instead, I will focus my remarks on the Duke’s deep connection to Scotland. That connection came before and went way beyond a royal title that contained our capital city of Edinburgh. It was a connection that stretched right across his entire life from childhood to old age. As a child, he attended school at Gordonstoun. It was there that he established many of his interests and hobbies that would stay with him. In those early years, he made his mark as an athlete in cricket and in hockey, captaining the school teams and becoming head boy of the school.
The Duke’s love of the sea first found its spark in Scotland, where he frequently went on school trips, sailing around the coast of Scotland. His affection for his time at Gordonstoun is obviously demonstrated by the fact that he sent all his sons there in later years. He also remained a regular visitor—most recently in 2014 to mark Gordonstoun’s 80th anniversary. That link with Scotland and the highlands only grew and deepened after his marriage to Queen Elizabeth. The love they have for Balmoral castle has been evident for years and their presence there is now part of the fabric of that local community. Whether it was his attendance at the Braemar Gathering, a highland tradition that has been ongoing for the best part of 900 years, or his presence at Crathie kirk, Balmoral became an enduring part of their life together. Despite his ailing health, it is very telling that he still made the effort to make his final journey to Balmoral as recently as last August.
For many people, I suspect that the most memorable and impactful legacy that Prince Philip leaves is the scheme that he lent his title to—the Duke of Edinburgh Award. Once again, the Scottish connection with the scheme could not be clearer. It was inspired by the Moray badge, created by Dr Kurt Hahn, the founder of Gordonstoun, with the intention of giving a sense of responsibility. The tasks in the scheme, from volunteering to outdoor expeditions and personal development, have helped community and educational organisations for generations. Since its inception in 1956, it is truly incredible to reflect that more than 6 million people have undertaken the Duke of Edinburgh Award in the UK. However, its reach did not stop there, with more than 130 countries participating in the international award across the globe.
The Duke was a very hands-on patron, and he personally attended the scheme’s award ceremonies, presenting his 500th gold award in 2013 at St James’s Palace.  That emphasis and commitment that Prince Philip placed on the value of education was a mainstay of his life. The Duke was appointed chancellor of the University of Edinburgh in 1953, and served in that role for almost 60 years. During that long period, he took a particularly keen interest in scientific development, and was a regular at graduation ceremonies. He only retired in 2010, and I know that the staff and students at the university also valued the role and the time he willingly gave.
It has also been noted in recent days that Prince Philip took a keen interest in Scottish architecture. There are memorable photographs circulating of when the Prince joined the Queen to open the Forth road bridge in 1964. They were the first people to cross the link between the kingdom of Fife and that great city of Edinburgh, and that enduring interest in the Forth crossing was replicated some 50 years later, when he made a private visit to see the construction of the Queensferry crossing. Once again, alongside the Queen, they became the first people to cross the new bridge after it officially opened in 2017. I know that political campaigning remains suspended, but I am sure that Members opposite will forgive me for saying that I am pretty sure Prince Philip would have appreciated that the bridge was delivered on time and under budget.
Perhaps people’s most lasting memories of the Duke were of the informality he often brought to very formal occasions. Throughout the years, I think it is fair to say that he was not a man for drizzling honey on his words. That trait equally applied to the advice he gave, and there is one memorable piece of advice he gave on the length of speeches, which I dare say some Members might even think applies to myself. He advised:
“The mind cannot absorb what the backside cannot endure.”
With that timeless piece of advice from the Duke of Edinburgh, I shall bring my remarks to a close. In doing so, though, I again convey the condolences of myself, my party, and people right across Scotland to the Queen and to the entire royal family. By any standard—by any measure—Prince Philip lived a long, energetic and full life. May he now rest in peace.

Theresa May: I join with the Prime Minister and everyone across this House in sending my heartfelt condolences to Her Majesty the Queen on the death of His Royal Highness the Prince Philip. Our thoughts and prayers are with Her Majesty and the whole royal family.
In recent days, there have been many tributes to Prince Philip: some from those who knew him well, some from those who had barely met him, and some from those who had never met him, but whose lives he had touched. I had the privilege of meeting him and having a number of conversations with him. He was a truly remarkable man; a man of so many talents. We have heard some of them referred to already today: a distinguished naval officer, an inventor, an innovator, a designer, a painter, a sportsman, and so much else.
What always struck me when he spoke, when I was having those conversations with him, was not just the incredible breadth and wide range of interests that he had, but the depth of knowledge that he had about each of those interests. He did not just dip into a subject; he did not pick something up because it was fashionable.  He was deeply interested, he cared, and he understood the importance of getting to know the issues that he was involved in. He was indeed a man ahead of his time, particularly in the areas of the environment and conservation, but that was not a passing whim. He deeply loved the natural world; he understood nature; and he was passionate about wanting future generations to be able to enjoy and benefit from the natural world, too.
I remember, on my first visit to Balmoral as Prime Minister, Prince Philip driving myself and my husband around the estate and talking to us about it. It was if he knew every single inch of it. He talked about the ancient Caledonian forest, about the birds, many of which were protected, about the animals and plants on the estate, about the changes he had seen over the years, and about what was needed to ensure that the environment could be protected and enjoyed by future generations. He was indeed a man ahead of his time. He showed his deep knowledge, but he was also an immensely practical person.
He was also a man of high standards. That did indeed come through in his attention to detail in the cooking of the meat at the Balmoral barbecues. But I also remember a black tie event, hosted by the then mayor of the royal borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, which Prince Philip was coming down from Windsor castle to attend, but probably for no more than half an hour. Now, some people might have said, “You’ll have to take me as you find me, so I’ll just turn up and that will be it,” but he dressed immaculately in black tie. He took the time and trouble because he had high standards, but also because he respected the event and the people attending, and he wanted them to be at their ease.
I remember my last day at Balmoral. My husband and I, as everybody knows, enjoy walking. Prince Philip had very kindly suggested a particular walk, so we were grateful for the suggestion and set off. When we got back to the castle, several hours later, we were told that Prince Philip did indeed enjoy this walk, but normally he drove around it in a car. I am not sure whether it was a test—and, if it was, whether we passed it. On that last visit, when we went to say our farewells, initially we could not find Prince Philip. When I eventually caught up with him, he was watching the cricket. How I would have loved to have stayed and watched the cricket with him.
I am a Berkshire MP, and in Berkshire we feel a particular connection with the royal family. Prince Philip set up the Prince Philip Trust Fund, which provides grants to individuals and causes in the royal borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, and many of my constituents will have benefited from that trust fund. Among the causes it focuses on are young people, and this is reflected, as others have said, in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme. It is one of his particular legacies that he had this passion for enabling young people to find themselves, challenge themselves, broaden their horizons and develop what are, for some, life-changing skills.
Millions across the world have much to be grateful to him for, but perhaps the most important aspect of his life was his absolute commitment to supporting Her Majesty the Queen. It is in no way comparable, but I do know how important it is to have a husband—a partner—who is a source of strength and a rock in times of trouble. As a hugely talented person, Prince Philip could have been enormously successful in his own right, but he put  his life to ensuring the success of his wife. It was that willingness to put himself second and to serve, to understand the importance of duty and to exercise it day in, day out, that will be his true lasting legacy, and that should be an inspiration to us all.
All of us here in the UK and across the Commonwealth have so much to be grateful to him for, and we say thank you. He understood the requirements of responsibility, the demands of duty and the sacrifices of service. We will never see his like again. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

Harriet Harman: I am grateful for the opportunity to add my tribute to the powerful speeches that have already been made to celebrate the life and role of the Duke of Edinburgh. For more than 70 years, he was at the heart of the royal family, that most historic and traditional of British institutions. Yet, as has been said, in many ways he was ahead of his time.
He was ahead of his time on the environment. This year the UK will host the 26th United Nations climate change conference, amidst the recognition here and globally of its importance. Yet more than five decades ago, he was urging us, with clarity and foresight, to understand how all living creatures on this planet are interdependent. These views were so much ahead of their time that they were met by some with derision.
He was ahead of his time on young people, with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, recognising the interconnection of physical and mental wellbeing as a route for young people to develop to their full potential. One of the many success stories of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is the work that goes on at Westminster House youth club in my constituency of Camberwell and Peckham. It gets more black and minority ethnic young people through the award than almost anywhere else. Many of those young people have had a difficult start in life or have not thrived at school, yet through the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award they find a route to self-confidence and success.
The Duke of Edinburgh was ahead of his time as a husband. One of the remarkable things about Prince Philip is that he chose, in his marriage, to put himself second and make his central role in life that of supporting his wife in her role as the Queen. He sought never to eclipse her, only to support her. Way back half way through the last century, that was profoundly counter-cultural. The expectation was that to be a man was to be head of the family, and particularly in the public domain it was the man who would play the leading role, and the wife who would support him. If that—sadly—still remains largely true today, how much more of an iron rule it was 70 years ago. His decision to give up what would have been a glittering career in the Navy, and to make it his duty to support his wife in her role, took him into uncharted territory and left him exposed. For if he was not the head of the family, what did that make him? There was no reassuring recognition that he was no less of a man for what he did in putting the Queen first, and  himself second. It takes a remarkable man to be a leader, but an even more remarkable man to support a woman leader, and that is what Prince Philip did.
When we hear the Queen speak, we know that she always weighs her words carefully. What she said at their golden wedding anniversary in 1997 was that Prince Philip had,
“quite simply, been my strength and stay all these years.”
What a loss it is for her to lose that husband, that partner, her liegeman of life and limb. We rightly pay tribute to Prince Philip’s work on the environment, young people, our armed forces, and much else besides. He did his work, but, above all, he enabled the Queen to do hers. For that he deserves our recognition and gratitude. He served this country by serving his Queen.

Roger Gale: I am very grateful indeed to have the opportunity to place on the record, on behalf of my constituency, the huge appreciation that we all share for the life and service of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. We also place on the record our condolences to Her Majesty the Queen, and to all the Royal family, about which much has already been said. The bottom line is that we are talking about a father, a grandfather, a great-grandfather, and most of all, a devoted husband.
It is inevitable on these occasions that there will be a degree of repetition, but I wish to return to the award scheme to which the Duke of Edinburgh gave his name. At the weekend I spoke with David Walker who, for 30 years, was chairman of the Thanet award scheme. He received his gold award in 1966 at Holyrood from the Duke of Edinburgh. I also spoke with Stephen Dyke from east Kent. Stephen received his gold award this year by post—inevitably, because of the circumstances we face. I said to Stephen, “Weren’t you disappointed?”, and he said, “No. It didn’t matter who gave it to me; what mattered was the achievement and the fact that I won the award.”
David and Stephen, generations apart, echo the thoughts and sentiments of so many of my young constituents and those represented by colleagues in the House, who have been through the bronze, silver and gold awards. To a man and a woman, they all say, “It has changed my life.” As Stephen said to me, “There is nothing—nothing—that I feel I cannot now achieve.” We in this House owe it to the memory of the Duke of Edinburgh, who gave his name to the scheme, to ensure that it is not allowed to wither on the vine but goes forward, prospers and moves from strength to strength.
It has already been said that the Duke of Edinburgh was way ahead of his time in his concern for wildlife and habitat, and that is absolutely true. Many of us on both sides of the House take a keen interest in those issues now; I only wish we had all been listening to him 50 years ago, because we might not be where we are.
Mr Speaker, you mentioned in your opening remarks the Duke’s interest in ties. My wife reminded me at the weekend that when I was introduced to him, his only comment was, “That’s a very loud tie.” Colleagues who know the tie of the Wooden Spoon Society will understand that he was absolutely right.
I would like to place on record the thanks of the armed forces parliamentary scheme for the very considerable interest that Prince Philip took in its work. You will  remember, Mr Speaker, that it was not so very long ago that he found the time to make presentations in your state apartments to graduates of the scheme. With typically robust language, he reminded us that provision for the future defence of the realm lies in our hands.
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister said that he hoped we would think of a fitting commemoration of the Duke’s life. I can think of no finer tribute than naming the new royal yacht The Duke of Edinburgh.

Iain Duncan Smith: I rise to extend my condolences to Her Majesty the Queen on the death of her liegeman of life and limb, who was her husband, a father, grandfather and great-grandfather, and a remarkable man.
He was talented in his own right, as we have heard and read so much in the last few days, at many things that I suspect many of us had no idea he did. I try to paint, and I understand what it is to be described as adequate, but I have to tell anyone who does not paint yet that they have something to discover—that even getting the right colours in the right place at the right time is, as far I am concerned, brilliant. We have discovered that he had all these elements and talents, and did so many things, and was not just innovative, designing his own machinery, but just had that intelligence, drive and leadership. From the armed forces, through hundreds of charities and so many thousands of public events, the Duke of Edinburgh added much distinction throughout. He brought distinction to all that he did, even if it was telling business leaders to pull their fingers out, saying it was quite clear the UK needed business leaders who actually led and actually produced something people wanted to buy. He was quick to spot that was missing—it was not about the people working in the businesses, but about the people not leading them properly—and that was considered quite outrageous.
The thing that has struck me has been the huge fondness—the outpourings of fondness––that have come in the last few days. I did not expect quite that level of fondness, because I thought by now many of the new generations would not recognise or even understand some of the things the Duke of Edinburgh had done, but their fondness and their sense of who he was is quite interesting.
I would like to reflect on the fact that in a way there is something else the Duke of Edinburgh represents: he represents the passing, finally, of the greatest generation. That generation was prepared to sacrifice everything—everything—so that the rest of us could live in peace and prosperity. They did not ask any questions and what defined them so much, and I think defined him in a way, was this sense of duty and an obliging sense of service no matter what the request or command. They were uncomplaining or, as the Duke of Edinburgh would say, they never bellyached. They were always understated and never complained. With those of my father’s generation, we could hardly ever hear them say a word about what they went through; they just shrugged. They never complained about their illnesses or their war wounds, but just got on with life. He was very much a representative of that remarkable—remarkable—generation, as is of course Her Majesty the Queen.
The one area I wanted to remark on is that that generation had this incredible sense of humour in the most difficult and appalling times. I hope my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health does not mind if I relate one particular story so typical of His Royal Highness. We were in the receiving line for civil service awards, and I was standing but one or two away from my right hon. Friend when the Duke of Edinburgh arrived. Her Majesty the Queen went through very calmly and quietly: she shook everyone’s hand, said a few words to them and moved on. He came through just behind her, and as he was getting to my right hon. Friend asking people what they did, he asked him, “What do you do?” He boldly announced—this was some years ago—that he had just been put in charge of nuclear submarines. “But,” he said, smiling, “I don’t know anything at all about them, Your Royal Highness”, whereupon he guffawed immediately and said, “How typical! Typical of politicians—in charge of something, and not a single clue about it.” He roared with laughter and walked on, with everybody else in complete and utter silence. He asked me what I did, and I said, “Sir, nothing that important”, which had the merit of being true, and he moved on.
I have to say that the Duke of Edinburgh was straight and very funny, and that is a key element of this. In this generation, I wonder what he thought about social media, where everybody complains or bellyaches the whole time about everything and about each other, often rudely and arrogantly—something that he and that generation would I think have considered appalling. “If you have nothing good to say about someone,” the old rule was, “then don’t say it.” Of course, this will fly over our heads here, I suspect, quite happily.
I end by simply saying that the one thing we must all remember is that here was a man with a glittering potential career who chose, because of love, to walk a pace behind the woman he loved and to serve her, and  by serving her he served his country with distinction. Nothing else needed to be said. His departure is a loss for us all, but in relation to the fact that we have such a great monarch, the reality is that it is because we had a great man beside her, and for that I give thanks.

Chris Grayling: We have heard a series of fulsome tributes to the Duke of Edinburgh this afternoon, and much has already been said about his extraordinary life and contribution to this country. As somebody who had the honour of serving as Lord Chancellor and then Lord President of the Council over a four-year period, I particularly wanted to say a few words on this very sad occasion. In particular, I wanted to convey my deep condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and the whole of the royal family.
Listening to the debate this afternoon, few would disagree that the reign of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II has been the most distinguished in the history of the monarchy in this country. She is not just a much loved figurehead for our nation; she is respected around the world and continues to be a remarkable figure as Head of State to this country and many others around the Commonwealth, and as head of the Commonwealth. But it is absolutely not, in my view, an exaggeration to say that she could not have done everything she has without the tireless support of the Duke of Edinburgh through the nearly 70 years of her reign. Through all those years, he has been at her side and has helped her give the country the leadership that has been so valuable to us all.
As my right hon. Friend the Member for Chingford and Woodford Green (Sir Iain Duncan Smith) said, that duty came with personal sacrifice. The Duke of Edinburgh was a very distinguished defender of this country in the second world war and did some extraordinary things during that conflict, but then he gave up a promising career and the potential for high rank—possibly the highest rank—in the Navy to follow the Queen in her role both here and abroad. He did so with a sense of service to this country that few could match.
That sense of duty ran well after most people had long retired. I remember the Duke of Edinburgh taking the time to visit my constituency to open a new building when he was in his 80s. As he strode around the building—and he did stride around the building—I remember remarking to his equerry how impressive and extraordinary it was that he was still doing so much for the country at that age. “He is a lesson to us all,” was the reply, and indeed he was. That visit was nearly 20 years ago, and for most of the years since then, he just carried on with the same work he had been doing for most of his lifetime, retiring only at the age of 96. I do not suppose that many of us will be able to match that.
Away from public duties, the Duke of Edinburgh was a charming and engaging man. I remember, as a Cabinet Minister, attending a dinner at one of the livery companies as its guest for the evening, and being a little surprised to find the Duke around the table as well, clearly outranking me. It turned out that he was not a guest at all but one of the members and a regular attender of the dinners there. He was lively and great company as well—not, of course, to mention that well-known and sharpest of wits.
The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh have been a national team for the United Kingdom for as long as I can remember, and it is going to be very strange without him. This is a very sad time for our country. We have lost somebody who has been a central part of our national life for most of our lifetimes, but for the royal family this is much more. They have lost a husband, a father, a grandfather and a great-grandfather. My simple, final message today is to Her Majesty the Question and her family. What I want to say is this, and I imagine it is on behalf of all of us in this House. We all feel deep sorrow about your loss. We are all thinking of you, and we are all sending you our best wishes on this sad occasion for our whole country.

Andrew Selous: As we meet to pay our respects to His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, our thoughts and prayers are with Her Majesty the Queen and her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, who are experiencing such a profound loss from one of the twin pillars of their family’s life. But it is a loss for all of us as well. The Duke of York put it well over the weekend when he said:
“We have lost the grandfather of the nation.”
My brother said to me over the weekend, “I will miss Prince Philip a lot. I have grown up with him. He has always been the quiet, strong presence at the Queen’s side,” and I think that feeling is very widely shared.
Although Prince Philip was born into a life of privilege and later lived such a life, we must remember that he arrived on our shores as a homeless refugee. In the proud tradition of these islands, we gave him welcome, and he repaid that welcome a thousand times over with a life of unstinting service to our country, the Commonwealth and the world. He was a man of many interests, but he will be remembered principally for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme. I noted the comments of one young man last Friday, who said that had it not been for the award scheme, he suspected he would have ended up in prison. Like so many families, my own children benefited from the scheme, which I am sure will continue to go from strength to strength—a living memorial to Prince Philip.
His other great interest of conservation and the environment fitted so well with his service to young people. It is of course young people who will reap the benefits of a planet and creation that is well cared for, and it is they who will feel most keenly its loss. The Duke was way ahead of his time in realising the profound danger of climate change and biodiversity loss.
In terms of being a role model, he showed how men can serve women while being men in their own right. Never have such role models been needed more, as we continue to learn of unacceptable behaviour by men towards women.
In 2017, he visited my constituency with the Queen to open the elephant care centre at Whipsnade zoo, and then to open the Priory View independent living scheme in Dunstable. Councillor Carole Hegley, portfolio holder for adult social care in Central Bedfordshire Council, showed him round and said of him:
“I saw his warm and friendly manner, his unique humour and the way that he made people feel at ease, talking to many guests as he toured the building”.
At the end of the visit, he received a gift from the oldest resident at Priory View, who was a good few years younger than the Duke himself.
As the royal family are united in their grief, I hope they will grow closer together and cherish each other even more, having lost one of their most beloved members. His marriage to the Queen was built on deep love and a shared Christian faith which, as we have heard from many bishops and clergy, was living and real. It is for that reason that we can ask with confidence that he rest in peace and rise in glory. He had an assurance that death was not the end, and it is the Queen and her family whom we must continue to support in their grief.

Yvette Cooper: I join speakers from across the House and the country in paying tribute and respect to His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and in conveying heartfelt sympathies and condolences from all our constituents—from people across Normanton, Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley—to Her Majesty the Queen, to all the royal family and to all Prince Philip’s friends and family, who are grieving now.
His has been a remarkable life through a remarkable century: from royal to refugee to royal once more; a naval officer while our world was at war; a champion of science, industry and the environment in the peace; and always a public servant. Every one of us across the country, whether we ever met him or not, could not fail to see the steadfast sense of duty, commitment and devotion that he showed to the Queen and to our country. Their marriage and partnership endured through seven remarkable decades. The role of the monarch, even one as well loved and respected as our Queen truly is, can still so easily become a lonely one, yet for so many decades Prince Philip provided the steadfast support, devotion and comfort that has supported our Queen, and our country owes him thanks.
The great age at which Prince Philip remarkably kept working—well into his 90s—is astonishing. Just six years ago, already well into his 90s, he came to the opening of West Yorkshire police’s new training centre at Carr Lane in Wakefield, where he described himself as the world’s most experienced plaque opener. He was not wrong.
Millions of people will remember him not for those royal visits, many as they were, but for the adventures he led them through with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. On a miserable wet Friday evening close to Easter, in the middle of the 1980s and somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and like millions of teenagers before or since, I climbed out of the school minibus to set off across a muddy field in bucketing rain. Our sleeping bags were soggy by the time we arrived at our campsite, and it poured all night, but the sun shone in the morning, and we loved it. The fact that so many millions of young people across the country and across the generations have done the same thing in the Duke of Edinburgh’s name shows how it has stood the test of time. The expeditions that instilled teamwork, leadership and resilience; the chance to learn new skills; the encouragement   of physical activity; the responsibility to take up volunteering and to do duty to others—those elements were things that he himself loved and believed in as ways to build young people’s confidence and opportunities.
Subsequent Governments talked often of and tried to set up versions of national citizen services for young people, but it was the Duke of Edinburgh, back in the 1950s, who actually set up one. It has endured and reached out: a quarter of the young people who started the scheme last year faced some kind of financial hardship or needed support, and so many young people from all corners of the country have had the chance to take part, including students in Normanton, Pontefract, Castleford and Knottingley today. New College Pontefract students describe their experiences as bringing them great pride, teaching them about dedication and hard work and building confidence.
Prince Philip resisted the idea of the Duke of Edinburgh scheme’s being seen as his legacy.
“No, no…it’s there for people to use”
he said, yet it feels more important, with more potential and significance on his passing, even than it did more than 60 years ago. When young people have had such a tough time this year, when they have too often been held back or been stuck inside or unable to reach out or spread their wings, the Duke of Edinburgh scheme feels more apt than ever. It is a great legacy, and we now must make sure it keeps reaching more and more young people, so that Prince Philip can keep reaching new generations, just as he did all of us.

Mel Stride: Today’s tributes have demonstrated that there are few who have lived a life as full as that of The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. There are even fewer who have dedicated their life to the service of our country with such resolution and unwavering commitment. His was a long life that saw early service in the Navy in the second world war, where he served with distinction within both the Mediterranean and Pacific fleets. Before that, he graduated as best in class as a naval cadet at the Royal Naval College in Dartmouth, something of which we in Devon are particularly proud.
There could surely be few as active as he in support of both community and country. He was a patron, president or member of more than 800 organisations and he made over 22,000 solo engagements during the reign of Her Majesty the Queen. It was not until the age of 96 that he retired from royal duties. He truly did fill Kipling’s unforgiving minute with 60 seconds of distance run.
He will be especially remembered for championing the environment, and of course, as we have heard, for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, in which hundreds of thousands take part every year, including many young people in my constituency, to develop their skills and mature into more confident, capable and caring people—to give them, as he termed it, a sense of responsibility to themselves and their communities. In my constituency, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award is offered at all three of my secondary schools and it is embraced with vigour, with around 100 students at Queen Elizabeth’s School in Crediton alone completing an award in a typical year. Dartmoor, which lies at the heart of my constituency, has been the beautiful place of challenge where so many people from all over our country and from a huge diversity of backgrounds have embraced the Duke of Edinburgh’s dream, and millions of young people up and down the United Kingdom and across 140 countries around the world have much to thank him for. He changed lives, and that is a legacy of which to be especially proud.
Above all, however, our thoughts must be with Her Majesty the Queen and her family. Over 70 years of marriage, the longest serving British royal consort in our history and a long life as a supportive husband to Queen Elizabeth now leave what must be a terribly painful void. Our thoughts are with the Queen and all her family, and the thoughts of my family—of Michelle, Natascha, Ophelia and Evelyn—are with her, too. May the Duke of Edinburgh rest in peace.

Ian Murray: I am incredibly grateful for the opportunity to say a few words on behalf of my constituents in tribute and condolence  this afternoon. As has been said already in the House and will no doubt be repeated throughout these tributes and for months and years to come, on Friday we lost an extraordinary public servant who dedicated his long life to our country, transformed the lives of millions of young people across the world and promoted the issue of global conservation well before it was widely understood by the vast majority of the population. For more than seven decades, he was a constant at the Queen’s side. We know from all that has been said and written how much the Queen cherished the support, counsel and love of her husband.
Prince Philip, of course, had a long association with Scotland that dates back to his schooldays at Gordonstoun in the mid-1930s. But it is on my city—the city of his title, Edinburgh—that I would like to say a few words in tribute this afternoon. He was the patron of around 30 charities and educational institutions based in Edinburgh alone, not to mention the many thousands across the whole country that we have heard about today, including Heriot-Watt University, the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the University of Edinburgh Graduates’ Association and the Botanical Society of Scotland; he was patron and a freeman of Edinburgh itself; Edinburgh chamber of commerce and enterprise, the Edinburgh Indian Association, the Edinburgh press club and, of course, the Edinburgh Royal Navy club—how could it not be? His beloved Royal Yacht Britannia, which he helped to design, is retired in Leith in Edinburgh.
He was a friend of the Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture and the Honourable Company of Edinburgh Golfers, a patron of the National Galleries of Scotland, the Rotary Club of Edinburgh, the Royal Society of Edinburgh and the University of Edinburgh athletics club, and of course, he was chancellor of Edinburgh University for nearly 60 years from the 1950s—a position that he accepted with the joke that
“only a Scotsman could survive Scottish education”;
I am not sure whether that was born of experience at Gordonstoun. He was heavily involved in all aspects of the university. He would preside over special graduation ceremonies. He would help to induct new professors. He attended long service awards for senior staff. He would attend the installation of the rector by students. He enjoyed the uproar of the rector’s ceremony and complained to former Professor O’Shea that he had made the event “too orderly”. He partook in the granting of fellowships to postgraduate students at the University of Edinburgh undertaking advance and complex research. However, he never shied away from engaging with the students on their complicated topics—everything from particle physics to Dolly the sheep. In fact, one recipient said afterwards:
“I feel I’ve just been put through another exam, except it was much harder than the last one.”
He had an official Edinburgh colour, Edinburgh green, which his team wore and which lined his private car, and his own official standard, featuring the lions and hearts of Denmark, a white cross on blue for Greece, two black pales on white for the Mountbatten family and the coat of arms of the city of Edinburgh. We have heard much this afternoon about the founding of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards in 1956, which he chaired until his 80th birthday. He regularly attended the gold ceremonies hosted at Holyroodhouse in Edinburgh. For many young people, those awards were the closest they would get to a traditional high school graduation, so the Duke of  Edinburgh always took the time to individually speak to as many of the awardees as he could. It is a scheme that transformed the life chances of young people across the world, from the prince’s own school at Gordonstoun all the way to the school that I attended in Edinburgh.
Many people recall anecdotes of his sharp wit and humour. Everyone who has paid tribute since Friday has talked of him as a funny, engaging, warm and loving man. He once joked, while stuck in a lift during a visit to Edinburgh’s Heriot-Watt University, that it
“could only happen in a technical college.”
He was not just the Duke of Edinburgh in name but the Duke of Edinburgh in his actions and public service too. His legacy to the UK, the Commonwealth overseas territories and the wider world will be celebrated and will live on for many generations. His contribution to my city of Edinburgh will be unmatched.
Losing a loved one is always so hard. I lost my own father when he was just 39. His grandchildren will only know him by the stories that we tell and the anecdotes that we recall. But it does not matter whether you are 39 or 99, a duke or a cooper; the hurt and loss to those loved ones and friends never diminishes. On behalf of my constituents in Edinburgh South and the city of his title, we send our heartfelt condolences and thoughts to Her Majesty the Queen, his close and extended family and all who will miss him so much.

Bill Cash: On 9 April, when I heard the sad news, I walked to the small Norman church, St Michael’s, next to our home at Upton Cressett, and tolled the Hanover bell 99 times. The bell was hung in 1701 to commemorate the Hanoverian succession negotiated by the ambassador to Hanover, James Cressett, and the Act of Settlement, which took place that year. Directly below the bell stands the Norman font, which Prince Philip arranged to be transferred to Gordonstoun in the 1960s for safekeeping, as the church and the house were then derelict. The font is now returned. This was typical of his spiritual sense: we hear he had more books on religion than any other subject. Our prayers and thoughts, therefore, are with the Queen and the royal family, and my constituents of Stone join with me in their private grief.
I had the privilege of conversing with Prince Philip occasionally, including on the environment. At a garden party, I introduced him to Margaret Thatcher’s advisor on the subject. “Aha!” he said. “So your party is now on my bandwagon, is it?” I replied, “We’ve been on it since Disraeli,” and we had a good laugh. Another time, at St George’s House in Windsor, we touched on the subject of Europe, which was also very illuminating.
Last week, we heard much new about Prince Philip, bringing his long and distinguished life of service into new focus. He was a polymath, a pathfinder with a purpose, with a sharp wit and much laughter. His values were both traditional and modern. He lived a life of duty, self-reliant, selfless without self-pity, and self-effacing. He did not do political correctness. He used his role for the good of mankind, and his award scheme helped millions of young people to achieve their potential in this country, across the Commonwealth and throughout the world, from every walk of life, every faith and every race. He was a good man, doing good things; a brave man in the Navy and in the war. He was as talented as he was learned: curious beyond words, applying his knowledge of science, technology and engineering, and insisting on its practical implementation.
In the words of Shakespeare, Prince Philip would have said,
“I cannot tell what you and other men
Think of this life, but, for my single self,
I had as lief not be as live to be
In awe of such a thing as I myself.”
He was his own man, and a man of his own time. He was a consummate, competitive sportsman, with rugged determination at the reins of his carriage or on the polo field, and he loved to win. He was head of his school and captain of cricket, and later president of the Marylebone Cricket Club. Young people needed playing fields, and he ensured they had them. The film recordings of his life with the Queen show the mutual, sheer love and laughter expressed in their eyes when they were together for those wonderful 73 years. I remember watching the wedding on television: a golden moment in 1947, after six years of war and deep austerity.
On Easter Sunday, shortly before Prince Philip peacefully passed away, Prince Charles read Gerard Manley Hopkins’ ecstatic poem “God’s Grandeur” for the Easter meditation at Stonyhurst, my old school. It opens with the words that so well express his father’s spirituality, and his commitment to the world around us:
“The world is charged with the grandeur of God.”
It goes on to say, “nature is never spent”. As you know so well, Mr Speaker, Stonyhurst is in the Ribble Valley, which inspired Hopkins, and we are told that Her Majesty and Prince Philip have long and greatly loved that area. Hopkins taught at Stonyhurst, where he wrote exquisite poetry about Ribblesdale and the River Hodder by Whitewell, including his poem of 1882 that begins:
“As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame”.
This literally is at the heart of our country, as was Prince Philip himself. He was a man for all seasons and for all mankind. We thank him, and may he rest in peace.

Barry Sheerman: Madam Deputy Speaker, you will know that I have been away from the House and doing my duties online for almost a year, so it is a pleasure to be back. However, I wanted to be here for this occasion, where we are thinking of the sad passing of the Duke of Edinburgh and the impact that that has on Her Majesty and the royal family.
Having been a Member of Parliament for a very long time—normally when I say that, people say, “Too long”—I have been lucky to have had conversations with the Duke of Edinburgh and Her Majesty. On one wonderful occasion, we were talking about the things we had in common—my wife and I have four children, and they had four children. The wonderful thing about the Duke of Edinburgh was that, from that time, I couldn’t meet him without him saying, “How are the children? Are they doing the Duke of Edinburgh?” He had a phenomenal memory.
I got to work closely with the Duke of Edinburgh because of his work with, and his great presidency of, the Royal Society of Arts, although he would say, “It’s not the Royal Society of Arts. It’s the Royal Society for  Arts, Manufactures and Commerce”—he absolutely insisted on that full agenda. There are two things that came out of the Royal Society of Arts that I worked with him on. One was a very interesting group where we tried to look at the future of the British countryside. It met at the RSA the first time and then at Buckingham Palace. What I learned from those meetings was that the Duke of Edinburgh could do public service with a sense of humour. He had wonderful sense of humour. They must have minted the saying “Not suffering fools gladly” for him, because there was certainly that element to his way of chairing a committee.
He would do his research, and he loved teasing politicians. There were three of us on that committee, and he would always find something. I got teased by him because at one stage, when the current Prime Minister was editor of The Spectator, he awarded me the parliamentary speech of the year award for my speech on foxhunting. The Duke of Edinburgh never ceased teasing me about my commitment to foxhunting. On the other hand, the Duke of Edinburgh would suddenly pick up on something and say, “What is this Labour party policy, the ‘right to roam’?” I said, “Well, it’s to encourage people to get out into the countryside and walk wherever they can very freely.” He said, “It sounds like a licence to poach and interfere with good farmers to me”. He always had an edge to him, and it was such a good committee. I learned that people can do public service with a sense of humour and with passion.
The other passion that I was lucky enough to share with the Duke of Edinburgh was design. We have heard tributes and people have mentioned his commitment to science, but every year, in conjunction with the Design Council and the design profession, he presented the Duke of Edinburgh Award for young, successful designers, and the wonderful awards ceremony in Buckingham Palace did so much to change the culture, focus and priority of design in our country. I remember him launching in and stating that the Design Council should be “more than a posh shop in Piccadilly” and that it had to reach out so that everybody understands the importance of design in changing lives.
I enjoyed the relationship I had with that great man and I will mourn him. I know that Her Majesty will miss him sorely, but, as in my family, the Royal family will come together and get through this. I will mourn with them.

Andrea Leadsom: It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Huddersfield (Mr Sheerman)—what a lovely and fitting tribute he paid. I too pay tribute on behalf of my constituents to the extraordinary long life, filled with service, of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. When I was Leader of the Commons and Lord President of the Council between 2017 and 2019, I had the privilege of regularly meeting Her Majesty the Queen, and I met Prince Philip on a number of occasions. Is it not wonderful that everybody in this place seems to have their own stories of meeting members of the royal family? How wonderful it is that they have reached out to us all over such a long period.
In particular, I recall a lunch at Windsor Castle where I had the pleasure of sitting next to His Royal Highness. The noble Baroness the Leader of the Lords and I were  chatting with him at length about his role in the restoration of Windsor Castle, following the 1992 fire—a role for which he was awarded the Europa Nostra medal for his commitment to making the past reflect the importance of the future. The noble Baroness and I shared our ambition to see the restoration and renewal of the Houses of Parliament. In the peppery way for which Prince Philip is world famous, he was in absolutely no doubt about the need to, shall we say, get on with it, and he was slightly dubious about whether Members of this House and the other House might ever settle themselves down and find a way forward—so, colleagues, take note, please.
I also had a more personal encounter, which to this day is an extraordinary family memory for me, Ben and our sons, Fred and Harry, when we were invited to a garden party at Buckingham Palace. The Queen’s private secretary was kind enough to introduce my family to the Queen and Prince Philip. Fred—my eldest son—to his great delight, had been presented his gold Duke of Edinburgh Award by Prince Philip at his last ceremony before stepping down from public duties. Fred mentioned this with pride, whereupon Prince Philip turned to Harry and said, “What about you, young man?” Harry told him that he, too, had completed all stages of his gold DofE Award, but I am afraid that I was unable to resist throwing in that he had not completed the paperwork and so would not be getting his award any time soon, whereupon Prince Philip looked at Harry fiercely from under his eyebrows and said, “Well, you’d better get on with it, young man.” Harry told me afterwards that of all the many terrible things that I have done to him as his mother, probably the worst of all was telling tales about him in the presence of Prince Philip and Her Majesty the Queen.
It was an incredible honour to hold the office of Lord President of the Council because it provided a bird’s eye view of Her Majesty the Queen’s and Prince Philip’s extraordinary commitment to duty. I would like to finish by paying humble tribute to their extraordinary achievements together, and by sending the Queen the deepest condolences on her very sad loss.

Liam Byrne: It is a great pleasure to follow such a beautiful tribute.
“There is an appointed time for everything”,
says the Book of Ecclesiastes.
“A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance”.
This has been a brilliant tribute this afternoon, because amidst the mourning there has been warmth, joy and happiness, and many fond memories. I hope those memories will be of some comfort to the Queen and her family when they have a chance to read this debate.
To remember the life of one is to remember the life lessons for all. When we celebrate the virtues of a life well lived, we affirm the values of what it means to live well. Today we remember not just an individual, but an ideal; not just a man but a marriage—a father who hated fuss and a husband who treasured humour.
I first want to offer the condolences of everybody in Britain’s second city, the city of Birmingham, to Her Majesty and her family today. The Duke was not always in Birmingham, but he was always there when we needed him. He was in Birmingham General Hospital to comfort the victims of the terrible Birmingham pub bombings, which ripped the heart out of families and the heart out of our city. He was there to open the Bullring in 1964 and to open New Street station in 2015. He was there to visit for the silver jubilee, to open the International Convention Centre, and of course most recently to inspect Jaguar Land Rover, that fine maker of what will be his final chariot.
The reason I think so many people in our country mourn the Duke of Edinburgh is because of the sense that an era is passing, but there is an ethos that we want to endure. It is an ethos that we want to protect, preserve and pass on.
As has been said, the Duke of Edinburgh was one of the last members of that greatest generation who protected us in our hour of maximum danger. A distinguished sailor, he was saved by the Royal Navy at birth and served the Royal Navy with brilliance, courage and fortitude. With his marriage to Her Majesty the Queen, his orders changed, but his duty never did. He came to epitomise a reserved resilience, a strength in putting another first. He became not simply a touchstone for the Queen, but a cornerstone for the Queen’s family and a key stone for the institution of monarchy in our country.
What distinguished him was not simply his backbone, but his banter. He understood that, in a difficult world, humour is often the oil that keeps the wheels moving, especially when those axles are frozen with nerves. He had grit and wit. Grit and wit are what the British Isles are made of, and grit and wit were what the Duke of Edinburgh was made of.
That is why the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme was so important to so many, certainly to the three poor children in my family. It encourages the ethos of service and adventure, which is the best of our national spirit. That is not always clear to those shivering in a tent on a windswept hillside, but character education is so important for our children because it teaches them not simply about the world around them but about the world inside them—the place where values are truly hammered out on the anvil of the soul. It teaches children those words of A.A. Milne:
“Promise me you’ll always remember: you’re braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.”
Millions of our children know that about themselves because of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme.
My final thought is for the Commonwealth. The Duke of Edinburgh made 229 visits to 67 countries over and above those visits that he made with Her Majesty the Queen. Next year, this country and my home city is host to the Commonwealth games. We know that our success will be judged not simply by the medals we win but by the lives we change. What a fantastic memorial it would be to the Duke of Edinburgh if we can find a way of getting the next Duke of Edinburgh Award winners to work with Commonwealth countries around the world to carry forward the inspiration and the lessons of Prince Philip for a new generation.
I conclude with my condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and her family. St Augustine said that those who have left us are invisible, but never absent. Prince Philip will not be absent to any of us here today. He was a Duke of duty who we will remember for the rest of our time. He got to live the blessing of Tobias. He lived with the Queen long. That was because he lived in the spirit of the Book of Ruth:
“Wherever you go, I will go.
Wherever you live, I will live.
Your people will be my people.
Your God will be my God…
We shall be together forever.
And our love will be the gift of our God.”
As we remember Prince Philip today, that is a blessing to give thanks for.

Lisa Cameron: It is a privilege to speak in this debate in tribute to the life of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on behalf of my constituents across East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow. They wish me to give thanks for all the service he has given so selflessly throughout his life—unstinting service to Her Majesty the Queen, his family, Scotland, the UK, the Commonwealth and internationally. So many constituents have been in touch with me to ask that I pass on their heartfelt condolences to Her Majesty the Queen. This is indeed a very deep loss, and my constituents’ thoughts are with the royal family in their grief at this most difficult time.
Many constituents have written to me fondly recalling the day they welcomed Her Majesty and Prince Philip to East Kilbride in 1962, as our new town was just established, to mark that very special occasion. Thousands of local residents waited patiently to see them as they were welcomed by Professor Browning, who was then chairman of our East Kilbride Development Corporation. Her Majesty and Prince Philip returned to visit East Kilbride 28 years later, on 12 July 1990, to officially open our town centre.
The Duke of Edinburgh was, as has been stated by so many today, a real visionary. He devoted much of his time to developing and encouraging young people, promoting their self-esteem, wellbeing and resilience through activity, achievement and camaraderie via the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, long before mental health was ever openly spoken of. This life-changing award has provided a lifelong benefit for young people’s mental and physical health, providing motivation and opportunity, and ensuring that no matter the difficulties of someone’s background there can be time and space for a young person to focus, to gain support and encouragement, and to develop their full potential. I have spent much time as a local MP visiting youth groups, speaking to the young people whose lives have been changed and their families, who have all benefited tremendously from this unique award.
The Duke of Edinburgh was extremely interested in climate initiatives, and became the first president of the World Wildlife Fund in 1961. He established the Duke of Edinburgh conservation award, and promoted conservation, helping with essential fundraising and awareness promotion. He drew attention to the plight of wildlife endangered by poaching. Today, in the midst of covid-19, we realise the absolute inspiration and strength that grows from the profound insight shown throughout his life . Prioritising people, planet and animals, His Royal Highness Prince Philip’s legacy is one that will endure and provides a vision for our future, which matters today more than ever before.

Philip Dunne: I, too, am grateful for the opportunity to join others who have spoken in paying my condolences to Her Majesty and the royal family on the death of His Royal Highness the Prince Philip. The Duke of Edinburgh arrived on these shores as a young boy lacking immediate family, having been educated initially in France in an American school before going on to Gordonstoun. Those experiences clearly shaped his determination to help other young people to develop the confidence to shape their own futures, as he had his own as a young man, through the award scheme he founded. Millions have benefited from it, as others have spoken about already today.
I would like to briefly add some reflections as a commissioner of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The Duke’s wartime experience and distinguished military service gave him and others of his generation such a powerful sense of duty and of the importance of remembrance for those who served their country and paid the ultimate sacrifice. He attended many memorial and cemetery dedications and unveilings through a lifetime of service. Perhaps the most appropriate was one of the earliest, when he unveiled the second world war extension to the Chatham naval memorial in October 1952. He pointed out that like all others who had served in the Royal Navy during the war, he had lost many friends who were commemorated there.
He visited thousands of Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemeteries on many of his 143 overseas and domestic visits. There were also the many commemorative events held during his decades of service in leading the nation as Her Majesty’s consort and in his own role, as we have just heard, across so many units of our armed services.
Wherever he went, he would show genuine interest in the smallest detail. For example, he would give tips to gardeners—often, I suspect, unsolicited—about their work and the plants they tended. He had that skill of making each person he was talking to feel as though they were the focus of his attention, often through his sharp and engaging wit and powerful observations. He helped people laugh, which broke the ice.
We have been reminded already of Prince Philip’s pioneering role in drawing attention to protecting the environment around the world. He was one of the first to speak of how humans are pushing the planet to the edge. He once said:
“We can’t make the Earth any bigger and we can’t squeeze any more out of its natural resources without changing its whole character and damaging its systems.”
He was always interested in conservation and wildlife, but his visit to the south Pacific and south Atlantic in the mid-1950s sparked his interest in the threats to nature. The hon. Member for Brighton, Pavilion (Caroline Lucas) and my hon. Friend the Member for Southend West (Sir David Amess) mentioned Prince Philip’s role helping Sir Peter Scott to establish the World Wildlife Fund. That enthusiasm never waned. He visited hundreds of WWF projects across five continents over five decades. He also used his position to promote conservation issues, inspiring people, from members of the public to world leaders, to protect nature and wildlife. That passion has clearly been passed on to his children and grandchildren.
Briefly, if I may, I will say something on behalf of my constituents who have expressed their sympathies in the last few days. Many of them saw the Duke in 2012 when, as part of the diamond jubilee tour, he accompanied Her Majesty on her tour to Shropshire. They attended a pageant at RAF Cosford, where thousands of people took part and watched the display with them. He also visited my constituency in south Shropshire in 2003 before I became the Member of Parliament. He and Her Majesty attended the Wenlock games, now widely acknowledged as the inspiration for the Olympic games, and chose rather provocatively to have lunch in Craven Arms in preference to Ludlow—the more obvious food capital of Shropshire—where they concluded their visit.
We celebrate the life of Philip and all that he has done for this country, especially because this most British of the British was actually Greek and Danish, as well as British. He certainly was connected to Britain, but Britain was also his choice. The wind did not blow him to these shores; he set a course. His were marriages of love: to England and to Elizabeth, his Queen. He served well, and will be both missed and well-remembered.

Stephen Farry: On behalf of people right across the community in Northern Ireland, my constituents in North Down and the Alliance party, I join in paying tribute to His Royal Highness the Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, and in passing on our deepest sympathies and condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and the wider royal family.
The Duke lived an exceptionally full life, with many interests and achievements—too many to mention, but which touched so many people in all corners of the UK, the Commonwealth and the wider world. It can be said that Prince Philip was an early product of European integration and reflected the complex intermingling of royal dynasties at that time, yet his initial years were marked with many deep challenges and uncertainties. He was a man of great ingenuity, resilience and foresight, as demonstrated by his distinguished naval career during and after the second world war and his early grasp of and deep commitment to science and engineering and to the environment and conservation issues. This powerful, agenda-setting example left a lasting legacy.
The Duke will of course be remembered in particular for his deep commitment to young people, most clearly through the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. There will be many people in Northern Ireland, across many generations, who remember fondly the annual award ceremonies at Hillsborough castle, where they had the opportunity to meet the Duke and to be inspired. It is also worth referencing the joint award initiative, the Gaisce, the President of Ireland’s award, which His Royal Highness was instrumental in establishing. Young people in Northern Ireland have a choice of certification when they complete their award: the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award certificate; the Gaisce, the President’s Award certificate; or the Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award certificate.
Beyond the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, Prince Philip was a regular visitor to Northern Ireland, going back to the late 1940s. I am pleased to recall a number of very welcome visits to my constituency. He had a particular affinity to the Royal Ulster Yacht Club and enjoyed racing in Belfast lough. In more recent years, alongside Her Majesty the Queen, he played an instrumental role in building Anglo-Irish relations, including, notably, the historic visit to Dublin in May 2011, and then hosting the first state visit of the President of Ireland at Windsor in April 2014, almost exactly seven years ago today. With events in Ireland having brought his own close family loss, his personal leadership on reconciliation has been widely acknowledged.
The Duke’s most telling contribution was, of course, as a dutiful companion and rock for Her Majesty the Queen. In impact and duration, theirs was a partnership that had never been seen before, and one that we are unlikely to ever see again.

Andrew Bowie: It is an honour to rise to pay tribute to His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. I rise with the Queen and the entire royal family obviously at the forefront of my thoughts, but also the many estate staff and estate pensioners at Balmoral and, indeed, the many more in the wider Royal Deeside community, who today mourn the passing of not only our Queen’s consort but an employer, a neighbour and a friend.
On Saturday, my wife and I climbed up to Prince Albert’s cairn, a large granite pyramid standing high above the River Dee, erected by Queen Victoria on the death of her Prince consort. From it, we looked across the Dee valley towards Crathie and its kirk, west towards Braemar and east towards Ballater. Behind us, although hidden by the giant fir trees—many of them only there due to the hard work of the Duke of Edinburgh—rose majestic Lochnagar, standing high above Glen Muick. All these were areas that his Royal Highness, through more than 70 years of regular visits, knew well and on which he left his indelible mark.
Balmoral was a place that, like Victoria and Albert, Prince Philip and the Queen loved as a private home. It was of course at Balmoral where the then Princess Elizabeth and he became engaged during the summer of 1946, and following their marriage they spent part of their honeymoon at Craigowan, on the estate. It was there that he was able to enjoy his passions—stalking, shooting, fishing, conservation; taking a keen interest in the agricultural life of the estate, especially the fold of highland cattle, and indeed improving the gardens, one of which he dug out himself with a bulldozer. The Duke was also instrumental in regenerating some of the largest areas of Caledonian pine forest left in Scotland.
Royal Deeside is a part of the world where, although proud of their links to the estate and the family, people do not shout about it; where, with typical north-east reserve, the royal family are afforded respect and allowed privacy as owners of one of the local estates, even when, as remains regularly the case, they are spotted in and around the village of Ballater. It was from Sheridan’s butchers in Ballater where the Duke would source supplies for his now-famous family barbecues, and it was not unusual for him to pop into various shops in the village just to say hello and catch up.
In saying that, when walking around the estate, if one was to see a dark green Land Rover appear over the horizon tearing towards them, they had better have their wits about them. Stories of run-ins with the Duke of Edinburgh are legend and numerous. My favourite, however, is of the occasion when the Duke, driving through the estate on a typical Aberdeenshire summer’s day—which means that the rain was horizontal, not vertical—came across a wet, bedraggled and miserable-looking group of young hikers. He rolled down his window. “What on earth are you doing up here in this weather?” he inquired. One of the lads turned around and spat out, “Our bloody Duke of Edinburgh’s Award!” The family and the estate still welcome hikers and ramblers, although course it is expected that they respect the land in return. One year, the Duke of Edinburgh, fed up with visitors tramping across the estate and not respecting the paths, stuck up signs: “Beware of the adders”. It worked.
Even at Balmoral there were, of course, occasional public engagements, and he would rarely miss the annual Braemar Gathering, an event that draws tens of thousands of visitors from around the world to the heart of my constituency each September, many there just to catch a glimpse of the royal family. For the Duke, however, as I saw with my own eyes on countless occasions, it was simply about enjoying the day and the sport.
Above all, Balmoral was a private home, somewhere he and Her Majesty the Queen could get away from the demands and pressures of public life, albeit for only a few months every year. It therefore, not surprisingly, was to Balmoral that he and the Queen returned last summer when the restrictions eased enough to allow them a break. When they departed on 16 September, the couple waved happily to photographers. Of course, that was to be his last visit to the north-east of Scotland.
The entire country is mourning the loss of the Duke of Edinburgh today, but nowhere more so than in and around the Balmoral estate and the communities on Royal Deeside. His Royal Highness was a proud naval man and a deeply spiritual man, a decorated veteran of world war two, and it was with that in mind that when writing my speech I turned to this part of the naval prayer:
“Preserve us from the dangers of the sea and of the air and from the violence of the enemy; that we may be a safeguard unto our most gracious Sovereign Lady, Queen Elizabeth, and her dominions, and a security for such as pass on the seas on their lawful occasions; that the inhabitants of…our Commonwealth may in peace and quietness serve thee our God; and that we may return in safety to enjoy the blessings of the land”.
At Balmoral, in peace and safety, I know His Royal Highness did just that.

Robert Halfon: Along with the British public, I felt real sadness on the passing of Prince Philip, and on behalf of my Harlow and village constituents, I send my heartfelt wishes and condolences to Her Majesty. He has been such a part of our nation’s history for so long that it is hard to imagine our national life without him. I know he has been spoken about as a father, but I see him more as a grandfather of the nation. I remember watching and talking about him and the Queen with my grandparents when I was growing up, and with my father and my own generation. With Prince Philip’s passing, the history of Britain is changing as well. It was good to read over the past few days not just about his heroic service in the second world war but about his defence of Jewish children who were being victimised by the Nazis when he attended a German school, and about how his late mother protected Jewish families.
As has been said many times during these tributes, one of the most remarkable things that Prince Philip did was to establish the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme. The charity has transformed the lives of millions of individuals, and the skills that these youngsters have developed have also increased their educational attainment and job prospects, so perhaps the very best memorial we can give to Prince Philip is to rocket-boost support for the Duke of Edinburgh’s charity and do everything possible to support it.
I am proud that Prince Philip visited my constituency of Harlow in both 1952 and 1957. His first visit, in 1952, came after the post-war New Towns Act 1946, which established a number of new towns including Harlow. Following his visit, a road that runs from Harlow Mill to Harlow Town railway station was named Edinburgh Way in his honour, and I am pleased to say that it has just been widened. Further to this, in October 1957, Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh made a tour around Harlow, including a visit to the market square and a factory. His early modernising spirit symbolised the modernising spirit of Harlow  new town.
We now know that the funeral of Prince Philip will take place on Saturday, and I understand that the specially adapted Land Rover that his coffin with be travelling in was bought from Foley’s in Roydon, near Harlow. It seems that both early on in his time as Duke of Edinburgh and now at the very end of his life, he has maintained a proud link to our town of Harlow. May he rest in peace.

Chris Bryant: Madam Deputy Speaker,
“Death is nothing at all. It does not count. I have only slipped away into the next room.”
So preached Henry Scott Holland, Regius Professor of Divinity, at St Paul’s Cathedral in May 1910, following the death of Edward VII, whose body lay in Westminster Hall—the first monarch ever to lie in state in this Palace. I always railed against those words when I was a curate conducting funerals in High Wycombe, because I found them too lazy, too immediately, conveniently consoling. I preferred the brutal truth of Cranmer’s Book of Common Prayer:
“Man that is born of a woman hath but a short time to live…In the midst of life we are in death”.
That seemed, and still seems, more honest. In the setting by Purcell for Queen Mary’s funeral in 1695, those words of Cranmer’s appear so stark, so bleak, so pared down. They seem to render a general truth about life.
Some suggest, unthinkingly perhaps, that there is less to grieve about after a long life—more than threescore years and ten. I disagree profoundly. Yes, 99 years is a long time, but even that feels short when your other half is gone. Such was Prince Philip’s vigorous embrace of life, both in fighting Nazism and after he had faced several life-threatening conditions, that I suspect he perhaps had more time for the words of Dylan Thomas:
“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day”.
I have no great anecdotes about Prince Philip. I never did the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award—I am feeling rather left out. I did dance the Highland fling for him in Stirling Castle when I was very young, and he teased me relentlessly when he came to Treorchy in 2002. Some have their memorials in stone, in works of art, or in great literature they have written. No doubt there will be similar memorials to Prince Philip: after all, there are already thousands of plaques all over this nation and the Commonwealth that bear his name. He even gave the Rhondda borough council its royal charter in 1955, and went down Fernhill colliery afterwards—rather bravely, in a white coat. Others have spoken of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, which is a phenomenal achievement, but perhaps we should determine to invest far more in our youth services, especially in our most deprived communities, as a further legacy to him.
However, Prince Philip’s greatest memorial is a relationship: a single, singular, special royal relationship spanning decades, its every twist and turn played out in public. Few of us can genuinely imagine what studied torment that involved: to fall in love in public, to marry in public, to row in public, and to grieve in public; to have every glance and gesture viewed and reviewed by millions, and then played out in some television drama. To keep one’s counsel, year after year, in such circumstances is to lay down one’s life in the line of duty.
I do not know what he would have made of today. He would have probably said, “What a load of nonsense. Shut up, man.” He did not care for sycophancy, and I  am not sure that he was all that much of a fan of people wearing their hearts on their sleeves. However, there is perhaps one consolation at moments such as these: the words of Scott Holland again, from 1910:
“the old life that we lived so fondly together is untouched, unchanged. Whatever we were to each other, that we are still.”
I, like so many others today and many thousands in my constituency in the Rhondda, wish Her Majesty every consolation. Whatever they were to each other, that they are still: a fixed point in an ever-changing world.

Tobias Ellwood: I welcome this exceptional recall of Parliament to pay tribute to the life and service of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, which reflects the very British bond between the monarchy, the Government, Parliament and the British people, whom we all represent and, indeed, serve. His passing has shone a spotlight on the British monarchy—arguably the most recognised and respected royal family in the world. Both domestically and internationally, they help define who we are as a nation and how we are perceived across the world. They are a welcome constant amid the flux and turmoil of politics. Many in this House and beyond have paid tribute to the sheer diversity and breadth in which Prince Philip touched people’s lives.
It is Prince Philip’s support for the armed forces that I would like to focus on today. The military has an affinity with our royal family. Governments may send people to war and into harm’s way, but they fight for Queen and country. The Duke acknowledged early on that there is no modern playbook outlining the duties of the Queen’s consort in modern times, so he had to design his own. Given his background, it is perhaps no surprise that he invested significant time in supporting the British armed forces. Prince Philip was an exemplar of that wartime generation who stepped forward to do their duty. He joined the Royal Navy at the age of 18, excelled at Dartmouth Naval College, and served with distinction in the European and Pacific theatres of operations.
After marriage to the Queen, Prince Philip was obliged to step back from his regular naval service, but then developed a close relationship with all three services, as Admiral of the Fleet, Field Marshal of the British Army and Marshal of the Royal Air Force, and by assuming active honorary duties with dozens of units in the Royal Navy, the Army and the RAF. That enabled him to stay close to and support the military fraternity, which he so loved. He was a continual inspiration across the ranks with respect to what it means to serve your country.
Prince Philip was Colonel-in-Chief of my own regiment, the Rifles, and that relationship was established before the infantry regiment amalgamations back in 1953. Indeed, his very last public engagement was in July 2020 when he handed over his honorary duties to the Duchess of Cornwall. The event took place at Windsor, where the Prince took the salute and the buglers sounded the Rifles’ assembly call, which signals the arrival of a senior Rifleman. The ceremony ended with the buglers’ No More Parades call, marking the Duke’s final ceremony as Colonel-in-Chief of the Rifles. That would also be his final public appearance. In keeping with the Duke’s spirit and reputation, the formality of the event was lifted when he broke protocol to take time out to chat with the buglers and thank them for their efforts.
Today, Parliament joins Her Majesty the Queen, her family and the nation in saluting His Royal Highness Prince Philip and expressing our heartfelt sorrow over the loss of a truly exceptional man who devoted his life to Queen and country.

Adam Holloway: It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone), and indeed the hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant).
This amazing man was the colonel of my old regiment, the Grenadier Guards, for 42 years, and I spent this morning on the phone to many people who knew him throughout that time. The overwhelming message was, “He was simply one of us in the regiment, and everyone knew that from the guardsmen up.” There are also a number of stories that, unlike the Prime Minister, I unfortunately do not have the social confidence to retell here. I first met the Duke of Edinburgh when I was a nervous young Sandhurst cadet, and he invited the officers who were joining the regiment up for a drink in a little sitting room in Buckingham Palace. He visited the regiment when it was on operational tours in Northern Ireland, and before and after deployments to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Bosnia. Indeed, one friend of mine told of how, at a patrol base in Northern Ireland, this young officer had a room next to the Duke, who stayed for the night. My friend lent Prince Philip a towel, and he could not help noticing when Prince Philip had gone, that he had folded up my friend’s towel and put it back in his room.
As someone who had been at the sharp end in world war two—we will hear more about that in a few minutes from my right hon. Friend the Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart)—the Duke of Edinburgh understood the ghastliness of war and the suffering that tends to follow it. After one particularly unpleasant incident in Northern Ireland when three soldiers were seriously hurt, he gave them all jobs in his household. Two decades later, seeing the need for additional support for the large numbers of grenadiers being killed and injured in Iraq and Afghanistan, he started the Colonel’s Fund to support injured soldiers and bereaved families.
As we all know, MPs and peers occasionally get invited to meet the Royal family, and I remember one time that I was talking to Prince Philip, and showing off my huge knowledge—not—of Afghan tribal politics. I could not believe it when he said, “No, Adam, you are completely forgetting the significance of the northern Pashtuns in the Afghan national army.” Those who know about Afghanistan, including hon. Members here, will appreciate that that is a nuanced point, and it is amazing that the Duke of Edinburgh was across Afghan tribal politics in quite such detail.
Along with General Webb-Carter, Prince Philip was the driving force in getting more soldiers from ethnic minorities into the Household division. He came from good stock. This morning, I learned from a Jewish friend of mine that in the second world war, when the Nazis started shipping Jews out from Athens in 1942, his mother hid the Cohen family for nearly a year, despite the fact that her small flat was pretty much next door to the Gestapo headquarters. Her body now rests on the Mount of Olives, and she is honoured as Righteous Among the Nations.
Prince Philip honoured and served this nation with a stunning contribution for more than eight decades. Generations of grenadiers and the people of my constituency salute and thank him, and we send our good wishes and sympathy to his family, and to Her Majesty the Queen.

Carla Lockhart: This is a solemn occasion during what is a very sad time in the life of our nation. The deep sense of loss is felt in every corner of this United Kingdom, in the Commonwealth and right across the world, reflecting the high esteem and great affection in which the Duke of Edinburgh was held and will always be held. However, no greater grief and sorrow will be felt than that by Her Majesty the Queen, as 78 years of companionship, comfort, and unfailing love and support come to an earthly end. I know that with her own personal faith in the great comforter, the lord Jesus Christ, Her Majesty will find great strength and solace in these days and those that lie ahead.
This is also a day to celebrate the life of an extraordinary man, to celebrate a remarkable marriage, and to celebrate the love and support of a husband, a father, a grandfather, a great grandfather and a friend. This is also a day to celebrate a life of service, whether that be through his duties as a consort or through the bravery and heroism he showed in service of this nation in world war two. It is also a day to celebrate his legacy in the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme and the transformative impact  that that has had on so many lives; and to celebrate his zest for life and, as has so often been referred to, that twinkle in his eye—his sense of fun.
The life of this remarkable man, His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, will never be seen again. On behalf of my constituents in Upper Bann, I express the utmost appreciation for his life of service, of love and of loyalty and express my sincerest sympathies to Her Majesty the Queen and the entire royal family. Our prayer remains: God save the Queen.

Thomas Tugendhat: I am going to carry on right where the hon. Member for Hove (Peter Kyle) left off, because there is a reason why His Royal Highness The Prince Philip was popular with the military, and that is for any of us who have sat at the top table at a military dinner and wished that we were down with our mates in the cheap seats, with the cheap wine: he brought life to the dinner and made the whole thing rather more fun than it would otherwise have been. I am going to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Gravesham (Adam Holloway) in not telling the stories that His Royal Highness told, because I think they would make Hansard blush.
Although His Royal Highness gave entertainment to the wardroom, and indeed to the mess table, he was also a very diligent colonel—and I speak, although I am one of two here, on behalf of the Intelligence Corps, whose royal colonel he was. He was always very astute in keeping an eye on what the Corps was up to, and asking us in great detail what we were doing. One colleague once asked him why we were not the royal Intelligence Corps. His answer was quite simple: “Because you bastards aren’t gentlemen.” I thought it was entirely fair.
The chances that he had in his early life to go awry, to become a wastrel, or a gambling prince in Monaco, or something similar, were huge. Instead, we saw a life of service and of duty. That is quite something.
When I go around the world, in person or now on video, one of the things that strikes me is how many people remember visits by our royal family. Today, although we are of course remembering the Duke of Edinburgh, I wish to pay tribute to the whole family that he led, and to say thank you to all of them. I have been to schools in Pakistan and to sites in Chile that have a plaque with his name on it, or that of another member of the royal family. That connection is an integral part of our country’s strength in bringing people together and promoting the values that we so champion.
We often celebrate our Foreign Office and praise the work of our diplomats, but today I would like to praise the work of one diplomat who has finally left service, but not until he really had done his duty. He exemplified an entire generation and an entire ethos, and for that I am eternally grateful. I offer my best wishes and condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and the entire family.

Carolyn Harris: As the Member of Parliament for Swansea East and as deputy leader of the Welsh Labour party, I would like to join others in paying tribute today to the Duke of Edinburgh, on behalf of my constituents and the Welsh Labour party.
While as a nation we mourn the passing of a man who devoted his life to public service, first and foremost we offer our deepest sympathies to the Queen and the royal family as they grieve the loss of a much-loved husband, father, grandfather and great grandfather. In almost 70 years as royal consort, Prince Philip was loved and respected across Wales, and he played a huge part in our nation’s history, in times of triumph and times of tragedy. He opened and presided over the Commonwealth games in Cardiff in 1958 and, just a few years later, he was the first member of the royal family to visit Aberfan, arriving just hours after the disastrous landslide that killed 144 adults and children in 1966. In the years since then, he has dutifully joined the Queen on official tours of and visits to Wales, and indeed to the Senedd, earning him the love and respect of people across Wales.
However, Prince Philip’s greatest legacy will undoubtedly be the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, which have given young people life experiences they may never otherwise have had. I know that in Swansea East and across Wales the difference these awards have made to the lives of youngsters from working-class backgrounds is phenomenal —not just for the range of activities and adventures they have enjoyed, but for the personal accomplishments, the skills that they have learned, the confidence they have gained and the futures that have been shaped from these experiences.
A life of almost 100 years should always be celebrated, but even more so when most of those years have been dedicated to serving the country, so today we honour a man who did just that. We thank him for the positive impact he made on so many lives, praise him for his tireless and continuous dedication to our nation, and join the Queen and the whole of the royal family in mourning his passing. May he now rest in eternal peace.

Andrew Rosindell: I join Members on both sides of the House in giving thanks for the life and service of His Royal Highness the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Philip was a man who dedicated his entire life to duty—duty to his wife, Her Majesty the Queen; duty to his country; and duty to all nations of the Commonwealth. In this, the longest reign of any monarch in British history and across these islands, the Duke of Edinburgh was always there by the Queen’s side, defending and upholding the Crown, while  at the same time showing his devotion to the people of this country through his work for so many wonderful causes, charities, the armed forces, sports, the arts and, of course, the protection of our natural environment and of wildlife in particular.
He was a good man—a man of character, integrity, courage and patriotism. On behalf of my constituents in Romford, I would like to offer my heartfelt sympathies to Her Majesty the Queen on this huge loss to herself and the entire royal family. A service of thanksgiving for the life of His Royal Highness will be held at the Church of St Edward the Confessor in Romford market later this week. It is a church that Prince Philip and the Queen visited way back on 3 March 2003, following on from Her Majesty’s golden jubilee tour of the United Kingdom.
I remember the day well. Upon their arrival in Romford market, Her Majesty and the Duke of Edinburgh were greeted with rapturous applause from the people of my town. I had the pleasure of spending time with the Queen and His Royal Highness as the then new Member of Parliament for Romford, escorting them around our historic market town, meeting stallholders and local people, followed by community representatives and a lunch in the church hall, the Wykeham Hall. Prince Philip had time for everyone. He showed enormous interest in all things that were important to others, and with a great sense of humour at all times.
As chairman of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, I pay tribute to His Royal Highness for the part he played in the Queen’s state visit to Ireland in May 2011. He did so much to help bring our two nations together, strengthening that bond of friendship between all peoples across these blessed islands of ours. May I also pay tribute to His Royal Highness for his lifelong support for the 21 British overseas territories and Crown dependencies? The Duke visited so many of them over his lifetime. I especially recall that wonderful day in July 2002 at Tynwald Hill on the Isle of Man, where the Queen and Prince Philip came for the magnificent annual ceremony celebrating the Manx tradition of Tynwald Day. I was proud to be there myself.
The Duke of Edinburgh was indeed a man who made the most of his long life, but he did so in the service of his family, his country and the Crown. We owe him so much. Thank you, Prince Philip. God save the Queen.

Geoffrey Clifton-Brown: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to take part in this series of heartfelt tributes to His Royal Highness The Prince Philip. On behalf of my Cotswolds constituents, whom I have the honour to represent, my sincere condolences go to Her Majesty the Queen on the sad loss of her devoted husband and consort of more than 70 years. His Royal Highness Prince Philip was a husband, father, grandfather and great-grandfather who will be hugely missed, not only by his huge family but by the country he served so loyally and by many members of the Commonwealth throughout the world.
My right hon. Friend the Prime Minister, and indeed my right hon. and gallant Friend the Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart), mentioned the Duke’s distinguished war record. His generation endured the suffering of war, where the bravery of our armed forces meant that Prince Philip hugely respected them for the rest of his life. This early experience of sacrifice and duty reinforced his dedication to Her Majesty the Queen and the nation he served so loyally throughout his long life. There is no doubt that Her Majesty the Queen’s enormously successful and long reign has been considerably assisted by the Duke’s constant loyalty and wise counsel.
However, the Duke earned his own place in the history of the British nation with his achievements in helping young people through his worldwide Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme—a legacy of more than 60 years; there is nothing more important than developing skills and opportunities for young people here and abroad—and his presidency of the National Playing Fields Association, now known as Fields in Trust. The Duke was also a very early champion of the environment, helping to form the Australian Conservation Foundation and, as many members have said, helping Peter Scott to form the World Wildlife Fund.
I, among many other colleagues, had the honour of meeting Prince Philip at a garden party, where we had a short conservation about our shared interests in the countryside, farming and the environment. As my right hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) said, the Duke had a deep, thinking mind, and he realised that the whole of the natural world is interconnected—if it is damaged in one place, that comes out somewhere else. The duke was a no-nonsense, humorous and down-to-earth person who characteristically requested not to have a state funeral. He was always there on important occasions, and his death means that there is now an irreplaceable void in our nation’s affairs, but his legacy and foresight will continue to live on. May he rest in peace.

James Gray: Of all the rich aspects of the life of His Royal Highness about which we have heard from hon. Members this afternoon, perhaps I can focus on just two that have not been mentioned.
First, for 42 years, the Duke was Master of Henry VIII’s great foundation, Trinity House, the true home of seafarers and shipping, lighthouses and pilotage, of which I am honoured to be a Younger Brother. The Duke was always a seafarer at heart. He understood the sea, and his commitment to all things maritime is absolutely legendary. He even helped to design the royal yacht Britannia, so a fitting legacy might be a new multi-purpose royal yacht, perhaps named “Philip, Duke of Edinburgh”. How fitting that would be! The deputy master of Trinity House, Captain Ian McNaught, quoted Tennyson in his homage:
“For tho' from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crost the bar.”
That great pilot the Duke of Edinburgh has now crossed the bar.
I well remember attending a Buckingham Palace reception for MPs shortly after coming back from a long expedition to South Georgia and Antarctica. When I was presented to the Duke, he leaned over and said, “That’s a bloody awful beard you’ve got there”—he obviously had a thing about beards. But when I told him I had grown it in South Georgia, his face lit up. He reminisced about his trip there in 1957 and how much he loved the rugged landscape, the wildlife, Shackleton’s grave and the rest of South Georgia. The Duke was fascinated by Antarctica and took great pleasure in showing guests at Windsor castle the flag that had gone south with Scott and the flag that went with Shackleton, both of which were eventually returned to King George V. South Georgia and Antarctica have a great deal to thank His Royal Highness for.
Perhaps his most enduring legacy, which so many hon. Members have already mentioned, must be the 6.7 million youngsters from 130 countries across the world who have so greatly benefited from the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme. My friend Sir David Hempleman-Adams is one of the greatest explorers and climbers in Britain today, and he owes that to his boyhood experience in the scheme. He rose up through the scheme and eventually became a trustee. When he was invited to Windsor castle, he told the Duke that it was an honour and a privilege—and the Duke turned to him and said, “No, David, it’s a duty. You must know the difference.” That moment typifies what the Duke thought about the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme: it is about duty, not honours and privileges.
Many other hon. Members wish to speak, so perhaps I will finish by reminiscing about a brief visit from the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh to North Wiltshire in 2001. We had lunch in Malmesbury town hall; Malmesbury is, of course, the oldest town in Britain—in the world, I suspect. After lunch, the Duke leaned over to me and said, “We’d better get going, or otherwise the Queen’ll stay here all afternoon gassing.” I had better take the Duke of Edinburgh’s advice and stop gassing, but I know that I represent the people of North Wiltshire, and indeed the whole county of Wiltshire, in paying tribute to a great life well lived, a great servant of the nation and a lifelong mainstay of Her Majesty the Queen.

Tracy Brabin: It is an honour to send my tribute to His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Philip, on behalf of my constituents in Batley and Spen.
The Duke had a close connection to Yorkshire. His first official visit, deputising for an ailing George VI, was to Hull in 1948. In 1954, just two years into Her Majesty’s reign, the royal couple came to Batley and Spen. The town streets were packed, as locals came out to give them the warm Yorkshire welcome that God’s own county is so famous for. When there was no room left on the pavement, people were hanging out of the windows to steal a glance at the glamorous couple, who took the time to meet people who worked in the industries that gave the region its moniker of “Heavy Woollen District”. Throughout his life, Philip took a keen interest in the people he met; I would love to have been a fly on the wall when the Duke discussed life and textiles with Annie Kenyon, a weaver for 62 years, and Mr Leonard Noble, a wool blender of 52 years.
As the royal family’s dedication to public service grew through the decades, so did Batley and Spen’s love for them. In recent difficult moments for our community, the Prince’s values and those of the Queen and the royal household were there again and again, providing leadership and comfort as only they could. Following the murder of my predecessor Jo Cox, Police Constables Craig Nicholls and Jonathan Wright, who arrived on the scene to confront Jo’s killer, received the Queen’s Gallantry Medal for their heroism. Pensioner Bernard Kenny, who was stabbed in the abdomen as he came to Jo’s assistance, received the George Medal; it was accepted by his wife after his sad passing. My friend Sandra Major, Jo’s former caseworker, was awarded an MBE for her services to the communities of Batley and Spen.
In the aftermath of the tragic shooting, the Queen wrote a private letter to Jo’s widower Brendan, which I can only hope brought comfort in the most difficult of times. I have the same hope that an outpouring of respect and tribute such as ours today brings the smallest amount of comfort to the Queen as she mourns her husband.
In December 2020, the Duke’s grandson, Prince William, and the Duchess of Cambridge were in Batley covering the ground that Her Majesty and the Duke did 66 years earlier. That visit was to allow Catherine an opportunity to meet resident Len Gardner, whom she befriended through the Royal Voluntary Service. I am sure the Duke was incredibly proud of his family’s ability to continue his work to adapt and support our nation during these adverse times.
The Duke also fulfilled a role of support to Her Majesty that is rare even today. World leaders still tend to be men, and would have been nearly exclusively so in those earlier decades. The Duke would have stood out as the supporting gentleman to his leading lady. His ability to affect lives is perfectly exemplified by the Duke of Edinburgh Award, and we have heard many examples of the impact that that scheme has had. The awards are a worthy legacy for the Duke, as they have been instilling the principles of volunteering, society, activity and education in young people for decades. While attending his last gold award ceremony in 2017, the Duke met participants from Kirklees. I hope those memories will live with those youngsters for a long time to come.
We come together today to pay tribute to a giant of British society—a man who lived a life of public service and will be fondly remembered with love in Yorkshire. My thoughts are with his family, who will miss him dearly, and all those who loved him.

Alberto Costa: The loss of the Duke of Edinburgh is painful for our country. Our monarch has lost her lifelong companion, the royal  family have lost their father, grandfather and great grandfather, and our country has lost a public servant who, through years of dedicated public service, gathered unparalleled expertise, knowledge and skills. This is a collective loss to our country. We cannot overemphasise that. Her Majesty the Queen described Prince Philip as “my strength and stay”. He never let the Queen down. Accordingly, he never let any of us down—his countrymen.
As chairman of the all-party parliamentary group for Greece, I look back on the Prince’s life as a fascinating education in the politics of the 20th century. Born in 1921 in Corfu, the son of Prince Andrew of Greece, Prince Philip was grandson of King George of Greece. As such, Prince Philip was born a Prince of Greece and of Denmark. The statement last Friday by the President of Greece, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, extending her condolences, included a touching photo of the young prince wearing the Greek Evzones uniform, but we know how the politics of the mid-20th century turned out, and it was the United Kingdom that took Prince Philip of Greece as one of its own.
However, it was not until February 1957—36 years after Prince Philip was born a Greek Prince—that he finally became a Prince of the United Kingdom. What a journey! The Prince’s coat of arms represents his lineage: a Prince of Greece and of Denmark on his paternal side; descent from the Mountbatten family on his maternal side; three lions passant in pale azure for Denmark; second azure, a cross argent for Greece; third argent, two pallets sable for Battenberg, or Mountbatten; fourth argent, upon a rock proper a castle for Edinburgh.
Considered by everyone quintessentially British to the core, Prince Philip’s coat of arms embodies a man of rather wide heritage. Only in Britain could such a man have been made a Prince of the United Kingdom and come to be regarded today, as we rightly pay our respects, as father of the British nation. What a journey indeed.
As Prince Philip takes his final journey to a much greater place, on behalf of the people of South Leicestershire, I extend my heartfelt and sincere condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family.

Mark Pritchard: I rise to join my constituents and people throughout the country, the Commonwealth, and around the world in mourning the loss of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. As Member of Parliament for The Wrekin for the past 16 years, I had the privilege of meeting the Duke on several occasions. Many of my constituents will have met him too, no doubt through his dutiful, tireless and dedicated work for the environment, the rural way of life, Her Majesty’s armed forces, and the countless charities that he led and supported.
Prince Philip’s life was one of true public service and supreme duty to Her Majesty the Queen, this country and the wider Commonwealth. In particular I pay tribute to his personal vision in creating the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. Every part of the United Kingdom has been touched by that life-changing scheme, as well as more than 140 nations around the world. On behalf of all the young men and women throughout Shropshire who have already undertaken, or are currently undertaking, the award, I say a very public thank you to the late Prince for believing, inspiring, investing, and trusting young people to discover their potential, and exhorting them to go higher and further.
Moreover, I know that many in Shropshire will recall with great fondness and celebration the Duke’s visit, accompanying Her Majesty the Queen to RAF Cosford in 2012, as part of Her Majesty’s diamond jubilee pageant. Prince Philip visited Shropshire multiple times over many years. Each visit was very special, and his memory will live on in Shropshire. Whether people met him or not, the people of The Wrekin certainly will miss him dearly—very dearly.

Sarah Atherton: It is with honour that I rise to pay tribute to His Royal Highness the Prince Philip on behalf of my constituents. Of course, the Duke of Edinburgh was also colonel-in-chief of my corps, the Intelligence Corps, and I would like to concentrate on his military career.
We think of the Duke of Edinburgh as a dashing naval officer. Many might regard him as having been privileged and certain to succeed in life, but that was not the case. His young life was unstable and fraught with difficulties. His father was nearly executed, his family was exiled, his mother—profoundly deaf—was sent to a sanatorium, and his sister was killed in a plane crash. He did not have it easy, but in his own words,
“One just gets on with it.”
The Duke of Edinburgh served at sea throughout world war two, from the Arctic to the Pacific—five years in harm’s way. Following the night action at the battle of Cape Matapan in 1941, he was mentioned in dispatches, still only a midshipman—an officer under training. That showed his unwavering resolve, which he continued through the rest of his service to the Queen, the country and the Commonwealth.
There has always been a close relationship between the royal family and the Royal Navy. The Queen’s father, George VI, was a gunnery officer on HMS Collingwood at the battle of Jutland. He, too, was mentioned in dispatches. Two of the Duke’s sons followed him into the Navy. Indeed, my husband, Nick—yet another dashing naval officer—served alongside Prince Andrew, both Lynx pilots in the 815 Naval Air Squadron.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s life of service is an inspiration to generations of men and women in all three services. His is an incredible story of service; of duty to the  Queen and his adopted country; of a life lived to the full; of a legacy of steadfastness; and of an unshakeable sense of duty but also a sense of fun, no nonsense and candour.
The 1944 “Royal Navy Officer’s Pocket-Book” suggests that a Royal Navy officer should learn that the
“art of command is…to be the complete master, and yet the complete friend of every man on board; the temporal lord and yet the spiritual brother of every rating; to be detached and yet not dissociated.”
Without exception, His Royal Highness commanded that recommendation. We saw that in his innate ability to connect with all rank and file, from sea lord to sapper. He shared a unique understanding and relationship with all who served. He cared deeply and understood the values, standards and demands that military service places on our armed forces. He was one of us. He will be sorely missed by the military family, and our thoughts and prayers are with Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family at this time.
Many of us in the House who swore in the military to serve our Queen and country have lost a role model—a man with a sense of duty and service, whose desire was to see every young person achieve their best through personal challenge, discipline and resilience. My hope is that, out of the sadness of his passing, we can have conversations like those we are having today, which tell the stories of his life and service and which will inspire future generations of Royal Navy recruits.
On behalf of the Royal Navy veterans in Wrexham, I would like to end with these words: Fair winds, calm seas, stand easy Sir, your watch is done.

Gerald Jones: On behalf of the people in my constituency of Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, I offer my condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family on their sad loss. Having lost my own father a few weeks ago, I can say that we all know and appreciate that messages of support and condolence are a great comfort when we lose a much-loved family member. I hope that the messages that we have heard today and throughout the weekend will be of some comfort to the Queen and the rest of Prince Philip’s family.
At times like this, it is inevitable that many of the examples and stories that people have to tell are duplicated. However, I have been struck in recent days by just how many stories and experiences that I was hearing were, in fact, quite unique, and many I was hearing for the first time. That highlighted the fact that, although Prince Philip lived in the media spotlight, there were attributes that we did not know about the man himself.
It is the case that, with someone like Prince Philip who has been at the heart of our national life for so long, it often feels as if we know him personally, which, of course, we do not. What we do know and what is evident is that Prince Philip cared about this country and about the people he spent his life serving. The decades of duty and service and his absolute devotion to Her Majesty the Queen are, quite possibly, things that we will not see the like of again.
Communities here in Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney and across Wales have a long tradition of supporting royal events, be they weddings, jubilees or royal visits.  In fact, there are communities in my constituency which, for the past few weeks, have been thinking about how they can mark Her Majesty’s platinum jubilee next year. We are all hoping that after all that our communities and the whole country have been through in recent months, and after this weekend’s loss for the Queen, the jubilee will provide an opportunity for a much happier occasion for the whole country.
As someone who spent many years in the third sector, working with many youth and community groups, I absolutely appreciate the contribution that Prince Philip made to the support and development of millions of young people through the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, which has now reached more than 130 countries around the world. Some of the young people I have met who have taken part in the DofE have spoken of the huge opportunities that it has given them and the self-confidence and the life skills that their time on the scheme have inspired. To have established this initiative 65 years ago and to offer continuous commitment to the obvious benefit of so many young people is an amazing achievement and legacy.
Finally, as the representative of Merthyr Tydfil and Rhymney, I would like to mention His Royal Highness’s association with the community of Aberfan. Prince Philip was the first member of the royal family to visit the community, the day after the disaster in October 1966, spending time meeting parents and relatives in their own homes and quietly moving around the village offering comfort. Just a few days later, he returned with Her Majesty the Queen, again spending time speaking with the bereaved and offering comfort and support. The Queen and Prince Philip have returned to Aberfan a number of times over the years, as has the Prince of Wales. The Queen and Prince Philip’s most recent visit was in 2012 when they officially opened the new primary school in the village. I know many people in Aberfan and in the wider Merthyr Tydfil area who never forgot the kindness of Prince Philip at the most tragic and difficult period of their lives. After a lifetime of dedicated public service, we give thanks to a life well lived. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.

Alec Shelbrooke: I rise to offer my condolences to Her Majesty in this Humble Address on behalf of my constituents as much as of myself. Every single one of my constituents—even those who have not yet been born—will enter a world and live a life that His Royal Highness, the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh has shaped. We know that he was reluctant to have the word “legacy” used around him and that he did everything in the service of his country, but he also helped to shape this country in a way that will help it to go forward. The institutions that he supported, which have been described in so many ways today, will have people taking part in them and using them who may not feel that they even have a connection with the royal family. They may be republicans who do not recognise the royal family, but his legacy has allowed them to participate in the areas that are important to them, and he drove those things forward.
As one of the few engineers in this building—as a mechanical engineer with an engineering degree—I can say that the Duke took forward engineering. He helped to form the Royal Academy and made it important.  The word “boffins” was used in the past, which may not have helped to achieve the recognition that engineering needed, but he created that important legacy around engineering and put it on the same level as so many other institutions. As we look forward to what the country becomes, we will see the influence of the Duke of Edinburgh in almost every walk of life that people want to go into.
When I arrived in central London today and saw all the flags flying at half mast, it struck me that this is about more than protocol. What it says is that we mourn. We have respect, which is why we are following protocol, but we also mourn. As I entered the city today, that sense of mourning became very evident once again. As the Countess of Wessex commented at the weekend, Her Majesty the Queen has concern for what other people feel. Through this humble address, we are saying to Her Majesty that her subjects mourn the loss of her beloved husband. We mourn a man who has shaped this country in ways that few others would have the drive to take forward. I am therefore grateful to have this opportunity to speak not only on my own behalf, but on behalf of my constituents and those who are yet to be born, and to say that this country owes an enormous debt to the Duke of Edinburgh, and in future people will benefit from that but will perhaps not recognise by how much.

Ian Paisley Jnr: It is a huge honour to take part in these tributes to His Royal Highness Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh. I, too, wish to express, on behalf of my constituents in North Antrim, my sincere condolences to Her Majesty the Queen on the loss of her husband, her life partner, her consort, her liegeman and her true love. To the entire royal family, we pray that God will give them the grace to cope with the loss of their dearly beloved father figure of the royal household. No doubt the many messages of condolence that we have heard today will be appreciated, especially their variety, which in itself is a small indication of the esteem in which His Royal Highness was held.
I, too, had the privilege of meeting His Royal Highness on a number of occasions. In 2016 I welcomed the royal party to the Giant’s Causeway in Bushmills. Indeed, the colour and pageantry of that successful event is still remarked upon today. I presented His Royal Highness with a blackthorn stick. With a twinkle in his eye, he asked me, “Now, what shall I do with that, young man?” On other occasions I had the opportunity to dine with him at Windsor, when he was very engaging about the situation in Northern Ireland, and no doubt he would have had some things to say about what is happening to our beloved Province at the present time.
I believe that his son and grandson, Their Royal Highnesses, put it well in their own contributions about their dear papa. As His Royal Highness Prince William said, “Let’s now get on with the job.” What a summit he has set for others to aim for and climb.
We in Northern Ireland have seen something of the success of his legacy in the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, which has reached 67 million people across the United Kingdom, and in Northern Ireland this year alone there have been over 6,000 starts. My own children have participated enthusiastically in the scheme, because it delivers so much. Indeed, the delivery partners are a diverse group that includes the air cadets, the Army cadets, Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster and, indeed, the Gaelic Athletic Association. That says something about the success of that organisation and its legacy.
Today, we as a Parliament say, “Goodbye, Sir. Your like will not be seen again. Thank you.”

Tim Loughton: Well said, Mr Deputy Speaker. Indeed, what is left to say after so many distinguished contributions? Let me start by sending my thoughts and prayers to Her Majesty the Queen, as so many others have, on behalf of the people of East Worthing and Shoreham. I add my three-penn’orth to this Humble Address without any particular first-hand knowledge of His Royal Highness, other than having met him at Buckingham Palace receptions, where I am sure we can all attest to his wit and occasionally eyebrow-raising humour. Alas, I never hosted His Royal Highness in my constituency in the last 24 years, but like so many people, I have admired his constancy, his dedication and his public service from afar and have felt truly personally saddened that he is no longer there; I have been surprised at the extent of that.
So often at funerals we find out so much about a person after they have left us from the tributes of friends and family. Extraordinarily for someone who was so much in the public eye, I have learnt so much from the saturation coverage that I have welcomed over the last few days, and it is virtually all good. It has been a welcome change from the negative, sensationalising and often conflict-seeking docu-soaps that hit the headlines on certain TV networks, to which, unfairly, members of the royal family can never really reply. The Duke of Edinburgh, above all, would have hated the tsunami of attention and all the fuss and the tributes that he is receiving now, like it or not—all the “yak, yak, yak; come on, get a move on,” as he once chided the Queen aboard the Britannia.
The outstanding theme of the accounts of the last few days has of course been the Duke’s unstinting and constant support for the Queen—“my rock”, as she called him. Indeed, it has been an outstanding partnership, and even the most hardened republican cannot but be moved by the obvious intensity of their devotion to each other in their engagement photos, which is echoed  so uncannily and undiminished in the diamond wedding anniversary photos 70 years later, as if there were just a few days between them.
However, there was so much more to the Duke than as consort to Her Majesty, and I do not just mean the extraordinary success of the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, which virtually everybody in this House seems to have been on or to have had children who have done it. I will not repeat all the figures, but one thing that is less known is that it was designed to be disability-inclusive, at his insistence, years before disability discrimination legislation was ever a thing.
The Duke was associated with 837 organisations, with a particular focus on young people and getting them active outdoors. Those organisations included the National Playing Fields Association, now Fields in Trust, of which he was president from 1948 until 2013—65 years. It was a long-term and active hands-on commitment because early in his royal life, the Duke was said to be appalled to see children playing in the street instead of in green spaces and it became his desire to improve the situation for young people in urban areas. He raised a huge amount of money for that charity, and he recognised the power of the media to help in that fundraising. He struck up a connection with Frank Sinatra, no less, and provided the introduction to the recording of “If Only She Looked My Way”, recognised as the first charity single, which helped clear the debts of the charity by 1952.
We know about the Duke’s extraordinary, courageous military achievements and about his sporting achievements, and he was ahead of his time in so many other ways. He was a recognised environmentalist before even David Attenborough recognised that he was an environmentalist. He was an accomplished broadcaster, particularly on issues concerning technology, science and space, and of course he took a particular interest in the NASA projects.
The Duke ran the estates at Windsor, Sandringham and Balmoral, and left them in a much enriched state. He was the force behind the conversion of the private chapel at Buckingham Palace into the Royal Collection to allow the public in to share the many masterpieces in that collection. He was, by all accounts, an accomplished artist himself, and commissioned over 2,000 works of art. He was a deeply serious and intellectual man, for which he is not appreciated. He loved debate, and to question and to challenge, as a result of which he set up the St George’s House conference resource at Windsor Castle in 1966, hosting many distinguished speakers and debates. I was privileged to have been part of that at one time. And, of course, he was worshipped as a God on the island of Tanna in Vanuatu in the south Pacific. The Queen is merely an earthly sovereign; the Duke of Edinburgh was a God.
On one thing, however, the Duke was wrong, and I will finish on this. Because of his slightly nomadic upbringing, leading him often to give “no fixed abode” when signing visitors books, he claimed:
“My trouble is that I’ve never properly belonged anywhere.”
I think the outstanding outpouring of respect, affection, admiration and genuine sorrow at his passing from every corner of the globe since his death has shown that he actually truly belonged everywhere. In the often unfashionable places he visited, the many under-appreciated  causes he supported, the impressions he left on the many millions of people whose lives he touched and in the hearts of the family, the nation and the Commonwealth he served so unflinchingly over the last almost century, our biggest tribute to him must be to just get on with it. We give thanks for an extraordinary life lived to the full, and may he rest in peace.

John Howell: As so many have done before me, I offer my condolences and those of my constituents to Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family. As many MPs have said, I too met the Duke of Edinburgh on a number of occasions at formal functions in London. I found him a very engaging person, who could put people easily at their ease, which he did with me. I am told that he loved to tell jokes. His jokes were designed to put people at their ease, but I do not recall him telling me one. A BBC presenter who interviewed me said that I was very lucky because few people were able to repeat his jokes in polite company.
Although we are surrounded today by sadness at the Duke’s passing, it is worth noting that he died after a long life of many achievements. Much of the press coverage has moved on to celebrating his life rather than reflecting on the sadness of his death. That is as it should be. It is worth remembering that, as Her Royal Highness Princess Anne said, the Duke’s life was
“a life well lived and service freely given”.
I, too, would like to remember the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme. I have seen how it has helped so many people develop their talents and their self-confidence. I know of one young girl who is doing her Duke of Edinburgh Award in art—somewhat different from what is seen as the normal activity of the scheme. However, the effect on her has been transformational and I am sure she has learned a lot from it that will endure for a long time.
I hope that we will be able to remember the Duke of Edinburgh’s major achievements for the country through his long life and service. I wish him the peace he deserves.

Bob Blackman: It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Henley (John Howell). Our thoughts at this time must be with the Queen and the royal family, who have lost a loved one, but of course we are celebrating a long and distinguished life, whether his military achievements, his efforts to encourage people to become environmentalists, his protection of wildlife, or particularly for me his love of science and technology, which was much to the fore in his earlier years.
I express my appreciation for the visits that the Queen and Prince Philip made to the London Borough of Harrow, the most recent during the Queen’s 2012 jubilee, when they visited Krishna Avanti Primary School. Krishna Avanti is the first state-sponsored Hindu primary school in the country and Prince Philip met children from different backgrounds, with different performances. That demonstrated Harrow’s multicultural nature. He was also present for 150th anniversary of the Harrow Zoroastrian community. That demonstrates his willingness to reach out to religions across the world and bring people together, which brings us back to celebrating his life.
Way back in 1959, Prince Philip visited Harrow Boys’ Club to celebrate its centenary. Of course, we celebrate the Duke of Edinburgh Awards and his efforts to encourage young people to participate in youth clubs and beneficial activities. The scheme started in a small way and burgeoned into an activity that is encouraged in schools and beyond.
I remember my visits to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen and Prince Philip, and the garden parties. My most vivid memory is of visiting Windsor Castle as a Queen’s scout to be awarded the badge of honour when I was a very young man.
We will remember Prince Philip for his wonderful life and devoted service. I hope that, in due course, we will have a suitable memorial in the Palace of Westminster to his great, long life. There could be no greater memorial than having another royal yacht, called “Prince Philip”. I thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for allowing me to pay tribute to a wonderful man, who will be sadly missed.

Neil Parish: It is a great pleasure to speak in this tribute to His Royal Highness. I offer my condolences to the Queen and the whole royal family.
We must celebrate the life of a great man—an independent man who had a huge career in the Navy and would have loved to carry it on, but his dedication to duty and to being beside the Queen meant that he played that role so well. He modernised the royal family, bringing it into the 20th and the 21st centuries. He also helped to modernise the Commonwealth. He also helped to modernise the Commonwealth. He was a huge character, but he never sought the limelight for himself. When he was interviewed on his 90th birthday, he did not know what all the fuss was about. He was a man who got on with it and did his duty.
As many others have said, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, where teams of young people build community together, is huge not only in this country but across the Commonwealth. We must also remember Prince Philip’s environmental credentials. Sixty or 70 years ago, when perhaps not everybody thought about the environment as we do today, he led the campaign as president of what was then the World Wildlife Fund. He has gone on to really help with the countryside and environment, and I pay huge tribute to him.
Prince Philip will be sadly missed by us all, but today we must celebrate, above all, a great and independent man who brought so much to this country. Although he may have said he was stateless in some ways, we adopted him as a Great British prince, and we will be very sad to lose him. Today we must celebrate a great life dedicated to duty. Again, I offer my consolation and condolences to the Queen.

Shailesh Vara: May I start by conveying my condolences and those of my constituents to Her Majesty the Queen and the rest of the royal family? Of Prince Philip’s many achievements, perhaps most visible is the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, started in 1956. With nearly 7 million participants, including many in my constituency, it has benefited generations of young people, equipping them with skills and giving them confidence and a sense of independence for the rest of their lives.
I recently spoke to a lady in her 60s. The daughter of immigrants, brought up in a deprived area, she spoke fondly of her memories of the activities that she undertook as part of the scheme. One memory that she particularly cherished was the opportunity to walk up Mount Snowdon, the highest mountain in Wales. It gave her enormous confidence for the rest of her life, but she made the point that, given her background and her circumstances, she would never have been able to do that were it not for the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme.
On a personal note, like others I had the opportunity to meet Prince Philip on a number of occasions, and on one such occasion, he asked about my background. I told him that I was of Indian origin and born in Uganda. Then we had a conversation, which made it absolutely clear to me that here was a prince who had a real depth of knowledge. He spoke of the expulsion of the Asians from Uganda in 1972. He spoke of the individuals who came to this country with nothing but the clothes on their backs. He spoke of the success that they had made for themselves and their families. Importantly, he spoke of the contribution that these people had made to the UK generally. Here was a prince who made a point of understanding and knowing about all the citizens in the United Kingdom.
The royal family has lost a husband, a father, a grandfather and a great-grandfather. We as a nation, and the Commonwealth and the rest of the world, have lost an extraordinary individual who led an exceptional life. His deeds and achievements and their impact will continue long after we are all gone.

Mark Pawsey: Mr Speaker spoke earlier today about how Prince Philip has been a constant throughout his life, and for me Prince Philip has always been the figure at the side of Her Majesty the Queen at official ceremonies, and it will take some time to come to terms with his passing.
In 2013, I was invited to a reception at Buckingham Palace, and the honour was extended to partners. As my wife and I were introduced to the Duke, he commented first that he did not understand why anyone would ever  want to be an MP. Then, looking at my wife, he said how difficult life must be for their partners, and my wife took great comfort from his supportive words.
Over the past few days, Rugby has been remembering the Prince, with flags flying at half-mast in villages across the borough, including Hillmorton, Pailton and Monks Kirby, and a wreath has been laid inside the main gates at Caldecott Park. Rugby Borough Council has set up a virtual book of condolence for residents to share their thoughts and memories of His Royal Highness, and I am sure that many will refer to the visit to Rugby made by the Duke and the Queen on 12 May 1967. I read that a crowd of 5,000 people lined the streets outside the railway station as they arrived for a visit in two parts. The first was to Rugby’s biggest employer at that time, English Electric, to see the manufacture of turbines used in power generation. An account of the visit tells that at one stage, Prince Philip mysteriously disappeared. We have heard in tributes today about his interest in technology. His departure caused great consternation among the tour directors, and he was later discovered chatting to workers in the canteen. From what we have heard about him in these tributes, we know that was certainly in character.
The royal party then moved on to Rugby School, which in 1967 was celebrating its 400th anniversary. The Queen opened the gates on Barby Road, which are the gates that visitors pass through to see the tablet that commemorates the exploits of William Webb Ellis in breaking the rules of football to create the rugby game. The game of rugby has its own connection with the Duke of Edinburgh through the DofE Awards, with thousands of young people engaged through their local rugby clubs. We have heard from Members today about the fantastic impact of the programme, which encourages skills for life and work such as confidence, commitment and teamworking—values very much at the heart of the game of rugby. In this area, the legacy of the Duke of Edinburgh will live on.
The people of Rugby will express their thanks for the life of Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, at a special service in our parish church, St Andrew’s, this coming Sunday. It is a great regret that the current restrictions will restrict the numbers who are able to attend, but I know that the deep affection in which he is held would result in the church being filled many times over.

Craig Mackinlay: We always remember where we were when significant events occur, and last Friday at midday I was at my constituency home in Ramsgate. I was on the telephone with my right hon. Friend the Member for North Thanet (Sir Roger Gale), and I heard a gasp and an expletive down the line—he had just heard—and he then related to me the sad news. That was a moment in time that I will not forget. I knew at once that a page in our nation’s history had turned.
We give thanks for a long life very well lived, and for Prince Philip’s steadfast support for our gracious Queen. We give our thanks to a devoted servant to our country and thus to all of us, a stalwart of our Commonwealth and a stable rock in a very troubled and changing world. He was a towering character who has always been there throughout the lives of every one of us in  this Chamber. Indeed, he married the then Princess Elizabeth in 1947, before all but a handful of Members of this place were even born.
It was surprising how little we knew of the man during his life. I had the privilege of meeting him twice, and both events had their classic moments that only Prince Philip could bring to an occasion, but those must be stories for another day. I feel that I have learned so much more about him over these past 80 hours, thanks to the extensive coverage in the media since Friday—coverage that I believe has been exemplary, well researched and properly respectful. I did not previously know that he was present in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese signed the instrument of surrender, or the extent to which he was virtually stateless as a young child. I knew little of his exemplary wartime naval service being mentioned in dispatches, or about the true depth of his involvement with the charities he was associated with or the varied interests he had. I do now.
The nation must turn now to considering a proper befitting memorial to that great life. Obviously, statues are being proposed, but my suggestion, as a permanent working symbol of his life and interests, is for a new multiple-use ship bearing his name, for use as a training ship, a humanitarian vessel, a mobile embassy and a UK trade platform, proudly designed and built in the UK as an overdue replacement for the Royal Yacht Britannia, which he loved so deeply. It would be a true complementary vessel to the carriers Queen Elizabeth and Prince of Wales. This should not be fanciful. It would reflect this country’s historical attachment to the sea, Prince Philip’s love of the naval service and his commitment to youth training. It would be a continuing glue for the Commonwealth, a proper platform to promote global Britain and a secure location for the royal family. I hope that that can have wider national debate and proper consideration. Rest in peace, sir, and may the thoughts and blessings from all across my South Thanet constituency be upon Her Majesty.

Derek Thomas: I share with my constituents in west Cornwall and on the Isles of Scilly a tremendous sense of respect for and pride in the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh. It was deeply saddening to hear of the passing of Prince Philip, and I am grateful for the opportunity to pay tribute to a man who lived a life of service, and a life that touched many people around the world.
Of all the tributes to which I have listened over the weekend and today, the references to Prince Philip’s ability to draw people of faith together in response to conservation are what I wish to highlight this evening. Prince Philip could have chosen much easier themes, but he was right to recognise that world religions and people of faith should be natural partners for the conservation movement. People of faith grow up knowing that we have a responsibility to care for our natural environment and the world that we are privileged to occupy—that is certainly how I was raised. However, I believe that the Duke of Edinburgh expected more than an individual sense of responsibility. He demonstrated that in his leadership of the 1986 summit in which representatives of Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism pledged to protect the environment. The summit took place only because of Prince Philip’s commitment and resolve. As a first world leader, rallying faith groups in that way, he demonstrated a confidence and belief that religions were able and ready to protect our natural environment.
In the past few years, we have been reminded of how critical that issue is. Of all the things that will mark a life well lived and something by which to be remembered, Prince Philip’s call to action, in defence of our planet, will ensure that the future of people around the world  will be better than what might have been. In closing, I extend my sincere condolences, and those of my constituents, to Her Majesty the Queen

David Morris: I welcome this extraordinary recall of Parliament. I declare my interests: I am a patron of the British Monarchists Society and a member of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners—His Royal Highness Prince Philip was our master and then our admiral.
His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh was an extraordinary man. His military service was exemplary, and he was one of the youngest officers in the Royal Navy to see action in world war two. He was awarded the Greek Cross of Valour, and was mentioned in dispatches for his service during the battle of Cape Matapan.
His Royal Highness was the patron or president of more than 800 organisations. He founded the Duke of Edinburgh Award, which has brought out the best in the young people in my community, and attended more  than 22,000 engagements. He also had the foresight to be a passionate, vocal advocate of many environmental issues and organisations.
Prince Philip visited my constituency twice officially over the years. In 1995, he crossed Morecambe bay at low tide from Silverdale to Kents Bank on a horse-drawn carriage accompanied by Cedric Robinson, the Queen’s Guide to the Sands. It was the first time that was done for more than 130 years. In 1999, Prince Philip accompanied the Queen to unveil the Eric Morecambe statue in Morecambe to honour her most famous son. I know that they were both fans of Morecambe and Wise, as we all are, and that more than endeared the royals to my community in Morecambe.
This is a sad time for the nation. Along with my community, I convey our heartfelt sadness for the great loss to Her Majesty the Queen, the Duke of Lancaster and the royal family. God save the Queen.

Jane Stevenson: It is a great pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Wealden (Ms Ghani), who shared such beautiful words from Prince Philip about his beloved wife. I am deeply honoured to have the opportunity to pay tribute to His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. As we mourn his passing, I send not only my sincere condolences, but those of many constituents in Wolverhampton North East, to Her Majesty the Queen, to Prince Philip’s wider family and to all those who loved him.
I was moved by the words of Princess Anne that she wished to emulate her father’s
“example of a life well lived and service freely given”.
The Duke’s example of service to others was simply extraordinary. From his early career in the Royal Navy to being “strength and stay” to our Queen for over seven decades, his life was an example of duty and selflessness that we must celebrate.
His Royal Highness visited Wolverhampton on several occasions. The earliest visit was in 1948, when he came to view industrial sites; the most recent was in 2014, with Her Majesty the Queen, to open the new Jaguar Land Rover factory in Fordhouses.
The Duke had a keen interest in industry, innovation, engineering and conservation, and he will be remembered for his bright, curious mind, his drive and determination to get things done, and for his wonderful, quick sense of humour. I remember Prince Philip’s visit in 2009 to one of the schools I taught at, Box Hill, where he opened the new music block. This was one of over 22,000 royal engagements that Prince Philip completed. As always, this visit was carried out with genuine interest and obvious enthusiasm.
Box Hill, like Gordonstoun, was founded on the principles of Kurt Hahn, supporting young people to overcome diverse challenges, value service to others, find their talents and develop into confident young adults. From these principles came Prince Philip’s most enduring legacy, the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme. To measure the value and size of his legacy, we should  listen to award winners speak about how the skills they learnt and the confidence they gained changed their lives and changed their life chances.
To leave this world knowing we have changed even a few lives for the better should be something we all strive for. The Duke of Edinburgh leaves this world having changed millions of lives around the world for the better. His scheme will continue to change many millions more. I am so grateful to be able to put on record my thanks for the life of such an amazing man, who used his position for the benefit and service of others. Indeed this was a life well lived. May he rest in peace.

Gagan Mohindra: Thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for the opportunity to speak on this Humble Address. I offer my sincere condolences to Her Majesty the Queen on the death of her beloved husband the Duke of Edinburgh. I know I speak on behalf of my residents in South West Hertfordshire when I say that his passing has been sorely felt, not just by Her Majesty and the whole royal family, but by people up and down our United Kingdom and across the world.
I have listened to much of today’s tribute, and it is a reflection of the Duke of Edinburgh’s legacy that many colleagues have spoken so fondly of him. In many ways, today is our chance to celebrate his life. I was never fortunate enough to meet the Duke of Edinburgh, but I was well aware of his impact well before I came to this place.
Other right hon. and hon. Members have spoken of the wonderful Duke of Edinburgh’s Award, which he founded in 1956. Millions of young people across over 130 countries have benefited from his idea. I really feel that I have missed out when others speak so highly of its effect on their own life journey. In my constituency, I sometimes see groups of young adults trekking towards the Chilterns, and often wonder whether they are part of one of the Award’s activities. I know many of my constituents proudly speak of when Prince Philip opened the Knox Johnston sports centre at Berkhamsted School in 2004, a school with a proud association with adult education and the DofE Award.
Prince Philip will always be fondly remembered across the Commonwealth. His support for the Commonwealth started before Her Majesty’s coronation in 1953, and his interest in international affairs and the environment ensured that he was always warmly welcomed wherever and whenever he was representing the Crown. The Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Baroness Scotland, says it better than I could:
“Past, present and future generations of Commonwealth citizens owe a debt of gratitude to Prince Philip for remaining constant and steadfast in his commitment to the Commonwealth, and his assuredness and vision of its global importance.”
His focus on projects and programmes for cultivating understanding and self-reliance, and other pioneering initiatives, demonstrated through action that Prince Philip was a man not afraid of doing the right thing, and one who cared passionately for his subjects. We thank him for his exceptional public service. The Duke was an inspiration to many people across multiple generations for decades.
I close by sending my good wishes and sympathy to his family and Her Majesty the Queen. May he rest in peace.

Ruth Edwards: Earlier today, I was searching for a biography of the Duke of Edinburgh on a well-known online shopping platform. Among the commemorative mugs, key rings and general duke-related bric-a-brac that filled the virtual shelves, one item caught my eye. It was a t-shirt emblazoned with a large photo of a clearly irritated Duke pointing at the camera. It carried the simple caption, “Take the bloody photo!”
I was struck by the sheer variety of books and pamphlets in which His Royal Highness had a hand. He was a truly extraordinary man: a war hero, a pioneer, and a devoted and steadfast partner to Her Majesty the Queen. Surely there can be no more fitting metaphor for his service to our country than his final resting place, Windsor castle, for he was the Queen’s fortress and her stronghold. He gave up his promising career in the Royal Navy to be with her, to serve at her side, and he remained by her side, her loyal guide and companion, until the very last.
In so many ways, Prince Philip was ahead of his time. He saw the need to protect our natural world long before many others were persuaded. The Duke of Edinburgh Award shaped and steered so many young lives. A highly perceptive man, he was acutely aware of the need for the monarchy to evolve with the nation. He devised new ways to help people to feel more connected to the royal family. Britain today is almost unrecognisable from the country it was at the start of the Queen’s reign, but the monarchy is still at the heart of public life and affection. That is in no small part thanks to the Duke of Edinburgh.
The Duke’s long life and career of service touched every corner of the country. Here in Rushcliffe, people recall with pride his visits to the cricket at Trent Bridge and the football at City Ground. He has been at the centre of our national life for over seven decades. We will not be the same without him. My heart and the hearts of people in Rushcliffe go out to Her Majesty the Queen and her family. A nation mourns with her.

Saqib Bhatti: It is a privilege to speak in this debate, and on behalf of my constituents, I would like to convey my condolences to Her Majesty and the royal family on their loss. With the passing of His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh, our nation has been left poorer. We have lost one of the greatest symbols of public service that we have had—a man who put his country and family and his wife above all else, and a role model for us all.
Many of my constituents have contacted me to express their great sadness, and I am grateful for all the dedications that have been made to honour His Royal Highness across the constituency. In particular, I thank Castle Bromwich parish council, Chadwick End parish council, Hampton-in-Arden church and Knowle church. The support and love for the royal family and for Her Majesty remain strong wherever you are in my constituency, and I am proud to represent such fine people.
The Duke of Edinburgh’s commitment to public life, the Royal Navy, the youth of our nation, our planet and, of course, Her Majesty as her consort was unparalleled. As public servants ourselves, as parliamentarians, we can only aspire to emulate such a life of dedication. The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme has transformed the lives of so many. I, too, participated in the scheme and found myself climbing mountains and supporting local community activities, instilling a level of confidence without which, quite frankly, I would not have been part of this House.
When someone of this stature passes, it is natural to reflect on what it takes to create a legacy. The test of someone’s legacy, in my view, is not the letters after their name or the number of statues created in their honour, but rather the people who have been impacted by that individual and had their lives changes for the better. Remarkably, the Duke of Edinburgh will be remembered by millions across the country and the world despite never having met them. Over the coming days, life will start to return to a degree of normality. Many will be visiting pubs with friends and family, and I ask them, while respecting covid guidelines, to raise a glass to His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh. May he rest in peace, and God save the Queen.

Sally-Ann Hart: I speak in this debate to represent the people of Hastings and Rye, who hold Her Majesty the Queen, His Royal Highness the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and the royal family in great affection and respect. On behalf of the residents of Hastings and Rye, I would like to express my deepest condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and her family on their loss. Our hearts are with them in this time of sorrow.
The monarchy and our royal family are priceless to our country. Hastings has a long-standing relationship with royalty, dating back to 1066, and that long and proud association also characterises Prince Philip’s life  of service, duty and devotion. He was part of our national life for over 70 years, providing us all with stability, humour, inspiration and, yes, at times challenge. In Hastings we had the good fortune to receive Prince Philip back in 1966, when he accompanied Her Majesty the Queen on a visit to the town. On that visit, he was made an honorary member of the famous Hastings Winkle Club, whose other notable members included Sir Winston Churchill, the Queen Mother and our present monarch.
Many Members have spoken today of the Duke of Edinburgh’s impressive military service; his selfless and lengthy public service to the Crown and to this country; and, perhaps most importantly of all, the unseen devotion, support and love that he provided to the Queen throughout 73 years of marriage. However, I want to focus on one of Prince Philip’s most important legacies, the Duke of Edinburgh Award, as many Members have done today. The Duke knew about the pressures faced by young people and was an advocate for them, believing in each individual’s potential. He wanted to encourage young people to take on new experiences and to develop themselves into more rounded people through character building. The volunteering section, in particular, gives young people the ability to think about the needs of others, and to give time to helping others, and for no tangible reward. This is more important now than ever before, with the distractions of social media and, often, self-preoccupation.
Prince Philip was hugely important to the people of this country, the Commonwealth and many other parts of the world, and we will continue to hold a special place in our hearts for him. May perpetual light shine upon him, and may he rest in eternal peace.

Fiona Bruce: On behalf of the residents of Congleton, I pay tribute to and give thanks for the life of dedicated service of His Royal Highness the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and convey our sincerest sympathy to Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family. I hope and trust that the Queen’s deep faith in Christ, which she has publicly referred to many times, will be of great comfort at this time.
Although less publicly expressed by the late Duke, many who knew him have testified to the depth of his faith also. Indeed, although he is often described as a man of action, it is less well known that he was also very much a thinker, with a theologically inquiring mind. He invested time to understand, discuss and reflect on matters of faith. He founded St George’s House at Windsor, a conference centre where clergy and lay people gather to discuss and explore issues. The theme of their first meeting in 1966 was: “The role of the Church in society today.”
Prince Philip authored or collaborated on a number of books, three of them notably about matters of faith. The first, published in 1984, was an exchange of letters between himself and the then Dean of Windsor, entitled “A Windsor Correspondence”, which considered a range of subjects, such as science and Christianity. In another book, “A Question of Balance”, the Duke concluded:
“Religious conviction is the strongest and probably the only factor in sustaining the dignity and integrity of the individual.”
He proved himself ahead of his time with a third book, as its title, “Survival or Extinction: A Christian Attitude to the Environment” clearly conveys.
Prince Philip promoted interfaith dialogue long before its importance was widely recognised, as it is today. In 1986, he gathered leaders of a range of world faiths to consider with environmentalists how together they could work to better sustain the natural world. In 1995, he furthered this aim by founding the Alliance of Religions and Conservation.
In closing, and speaking as the Prime Minister’s special envoy for freedom of religion or belief, I refer to the tribute from the Council of Christians and Jews, which expressed gratitude for Prince Philip’s contribution to strengthening relationships between those faiths and expressed confidence that for
“those who work for reconciliation and cooperation between people of different faiths and communities”,
his
“legacy of quiet and faithful service will continue to be an inspiration to all”.

Anthony Mangnall: It is a pleasure to be able to pay tribute to His Royal Highness the Prince Philip. I do so having heard 114 other speeches today that have referred to the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, which I did not do, or to having met him, which I did not do, so rather than use a personal anecdote, I thought I would tell the House about the special link and bond between the Duke of Edinburgh and Dartmouth town and the Britannia Royal Naval College.
Of course, it was there that, in 1939, Prince Philip met the then Princess Elizabeth, and a lifetime of happiness and 73 years of marriage speak for themselves, but it was also at that college and in that town that he was prepared for a life of service within the military. We have already heard from many about his time there, but he received a mention in dispatches. At the age of 21, he was made the youngest first lieutenant in the Navy. His career, despite the horrors of war, was marked by continued success and promotion—not because of who he was, but because of the recognition of his talent and his ability.
In the post-war years, Prince Philip continued to visit Dartmouth and to play an active role in the Britannia Royal Medical Colleges, taking the salute at the passing-out parades. These visits were not just fêted, but appreciated by the cadets and the town folk alike. So it is particularly relevant that, today, the First Sea Lord is in Dartmouth and, along with the captain of the college and the cadets, will be marking that special link between His Royal Highness and Dartmouth and the naval college. He leaves an indelible mark on south Devon that will be commemorated today, and I am sure celebrated in future years.
Prince Philip’s was a life marked not just by his own achievements, but by the impact he had on so many others. Throughout his life, he exhibited the qualities of loyalty, duty and service that are together so unique and rare to be found in one person. All I can say is that the people of Dartmouth, Totnes, Kingsbridge, Brixham, Paignton, Salcombe and south Devon send our deepest condolences to Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family, and we express our thanks for the remarkable life and service of this extraordinary man.

Felicity Buchan: On behalf of the residents of Kensington, I would like to pay the deepest tribute to His Royal Highness the Prince Philip, who gave a lifetime of service to our nation and to the Commonwealth. Prince Philip had a long association with my constituency of Kensington. As a boy, he spent time at Kensington Palace in the apartments of his maternal grandmother, who was the granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
Like his predecessor Prince Albert, Prince Philip was very much a man ahead of his time, and I want to focus briefly on three particular aspects: his passion for science and technology; his support for young people; and his advocacy for the environment and conservation.
Prince Philip had long and deep links with the Science Museum, first visiting in the 1960s. In 2014, he was elected a fellow of the Science Museum, a real accolade in appreciation of his sponsorship of science and technology. He was also very close to Imperial College, which lies partly in my constituency. Indeed, he was one of the first to receive a degree from Imperial when it attained its independence from the University of London. In 2007, he became an honorary doctor of science in recognition of his contribution.
As many colleagues have said, Prince Philip was a great supporter of young people. Rather than alluding to the Duke of Edinburgh Award scheme, I want to mention an email I received at the weekend from a constituent who sent me photographs from the 1950s of Prince Philip visiting youth clubs and boys’ clubs in north Kensington and Notting Hill.
Finally, Prince Philip had a huge passion for conservation and the environment, to which the Natural History Museum in my constituency paid great tribute.
On behalf of all residents of Kensington, I want to say thank you to Prince Philip for everything he did for Kensington, for our nation and for the Commonwealth.

Selaine Saxby: It is a privilege to speak in the Chamber today to mark the passing of His Royal Highness Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh and to convey from the people of North Devon our heartfelt condolences to the royal family, in particular Her Majesty the Queen.
In North Devon, we are proud of our naval links, with both Royal Marines Barracks Chivenor and Arromanches located in my constituency. Prince Philip last visited North Devon in 2011, when he was president of the homecoming parade of Chivenor’s Commando Logistic Regiment to celebrate their safe return from Afghanistan. That so many locally still recall that visit highlights the place the Prince holds in our collective memories. That friends have recalled their meetings with the Prince and the Queen in private on nearby Lundy Island, and the pride of a local family who disclosed that they have copyright to some of the first pictures of the Prince meeting the then Princess at Dartmouth, shows that we all want a memory to link us to someone who has always been a part of our lives.
That we feel such loss means that we can only imagine the void left at Windsor Castle within the royal family. Too often we forget that those in public life laugh and love and, indeed, live their own lives, as well as what is  played out in the public domain. The passing of a loved one is always a difficult time, and to go through such loss in the public eye with such dignity reminds us of why we so often look to the royal family for guidance and may partly explain the collective grief we feel at this time.
In a period of such national loss, with so many grieving for their loved ones, the National Bereavement Partnership founded in North Devon during the pandemic is, as are so many charities, churches and community groups, there to listen if anyone needs support.
Much has been said about the Duke of Edinburgh’s immense contribution to public life. As a former teacher, my highlight is his contribution to upcoming generations in the form of the Duke of Edinburgh Awards, which I hope will remain with us long into the future.
Prince Philip has left an immeasurable legacy. Seeing a nation grieve in unity hopefully provides some solace to his family in this time of personal grief. My thoughts and prayers remain with our royal family, in particular Her Majesty the Queen.

Angela Richardson: It is a true privilege to speak today. Along with colleagues and the people of Guildford, Cranleigh and our villages, I extend my heartfelt condolences to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and the royal family on the loss of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. It has been heartwarming to see the community Facebook pages of my constituency full of fond recollections of his visits to us, along with unified messages of respect for his long service.
I wish to focus my brief remarks on the impact of his legacy throughout the Commonwealth. His visits to my native New Zealand were always special. That applies especially to the Commonwealth games in 1974 and 1990, which His Royal Highness attended. He left a lasting impression and a positive impact on the country. What stays long in the minds of New Zealanders is the first ever royal visit to the country in 1953, a year that saw the coronation and the whole country turning out to see the gorgeous royal couple when they arrived in December.
After two devastating world wars, life was on the up. Never before seen footage emerged last week of the Duke larking about on a lilo in a swimming pool on Christmas day, but what many may not know is that, late the previous evening, New Zealand suffered its worst ever rail disaster, where a bridge collapsed at Tangiwai and 151 souls lost their lives. Her Majesty expressed her condolences to the people of New Zealand in her Christmas day address, and it was Prince Philip who attended the state funeral of many of the victims and comforted those who were bereaved and mourning.
We are now in national mourning for His Royal Highness, and, sadly, owing to coronavirus restrictions, we cannot show our respects in person as we would normally like to do, so I am grateful for this opportunity to offer a short karakia or prayer:
“Kia hora te marino
Kia whakapapa pounamu te moana
Hei huarahi mā tātou I te rangi nei
Aroha atu, aroha mai
Tātou i a tātou katoa”
This translates as: May peace be widespread, may the sea be like greenstone, a pathway for us all today. Give love, receive love. Let us show respect for each other.
Haere ra. Farewell to His Royal Highness. Our grateful thanks for all that he has done for our country and the Commonwealth nations in his lifetime of duty and service.

Imran Ahmad Khan: It is in grief that we assemble today. The death of His Royal Highness The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh has reverberated through the heart of our nation. Together with all whom I have met in Wakefield and countless others from around the world, my thoughts and prayers remain with Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family. We not only mourn his death, but celebrate his extraordinary life and his great accomplishments. Prince Philip was a man who dedicated his life to serving his country and demonstrated a selfless commitment to his duties in peace and in war.
Muslims believe that the best way to serve God is by serving his creation. If we take this as a metric of measurement, Prince Philip’s life is an exemplar of merit, whether that be in serving his country and his family or tirelessly supporting communities and championing innovation, engineering and conservation.
The Duke of Edinburgh will long be celebrated for far more than his great service and duty. He possessed an insatiable intellectual curiosity and was able to stand toe to toe with some of the greatest minds of our age.  Prince Philip’s intellectual prowess and range of interests were exceptional and have had an impact on people and communities across the world.
When Ayub Khan, the second President of Pakistan, visited the UK in 1960, Prince Philip, who always maintained an interest in the country as patron of the Pakistan Association, told him of a brilliant young Pakistani physicist at Imperial College London by the name of Abdus Salam and recommended that President Khan meet him. The Duke was deeply interested in science and invited Abdus Salam and his wife to the Palace a number of times, well before Salam’s fame as the first Muslim Nobel laureate. Shortly after receiving this advice, Salam and Khan met and he was appointed by the President to direct the Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission in 1961. The Duke’s robust interest in the sciences and in the people of Pakistan played a key role in firmly establishing this important relationship.
Today, we mourn the death of Prince Philip, but let us always celebrate his life and service, both to Her Majesty the Queen and to the entire Commonwealth. His life serves as a shining example that I pray will continue to inspire people for generations to come, regardless of their age, their background or their beliefs. God save the Queen.

Chris Loder: It is an honour to speak today on behalf of my constituents in West Dorset, to share in our nation’s sorrow and to send our deepest sympathies to Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family.
Prince Philip was one of the few constants in our transitory lives. The past few days have given many of us the time to consider not only the life and service of Prince Philip, but our own lives and service to our communities.
The Duke of Edinburgh was a man of home truths. He was not afraid to say what he thought, and he did not mind being controversial. In many ways, the expression of those home truths reflected the thoughts of the public, and we are worse off as a nation without that kind of honesty and common sense from him.
Prince Philip was of my grandparents’ generation. Their sense of duty and service, particularly during times of difficulty, has allowed us to lead the lives of freedom and democracy that we enjoy today. Theirs is a generation of selflessness, not entitlement. Theirs is a generation of tenacity, character and wisdom.
The people in West Dorset have very fond memories of when Her Majesty and His Royal Highness visited us on several occasions. They have visited my home town of Sherborne twice, once in 1998 when Her Majesty unveiled the great west window at Sherborne Abbey, and again as part of the Queen’s diamond jubilee tour in 2012. They also came to Dorchester, our county town, in 2016 to open Queen Mother Square in Poundbury. Those memories have endured with us for many years, and will continue to do so. Like so many families who have lost loved ones over this past year, the Queen and her family will have a funeral for Prince Philip that is much smaller than it might otherwise have been. While on Saturday we cannot be physically present, I would like the Queen to know that the country is standing beside her in spirit and sharing in her loss. While the nation mourns a prince, the Queen mourns her husband. It is therefore with profound affection from West Dorset that I wish the Queen to know that she and the royal family remain steadfastly in our thoughts and prayers, as indeed does Prince Philip.

James Daly: On 21 October 1954, it was a rainy cold day in Bury, but thousands lined the streets of the town to welcome Her Majesty the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh on their visit. There is a wonderful Pathé newsreel recording the event, but the day lives on in the minds of those who were there. Iona was a young pupil who, with her classmates, stood open-mouthed, watching through the railings on Knowsley Street, as Her Majesty and His Royal Highness emerged on to the balcony to open the brand-new Bury town hall. She told me today of the
“complete and utter excitement to see the Queen and the Duke.”
Pat was 10 years of age, and remembers to this day where she stood with her friends, facing the town hall, with rain pouring down. She said that
“no one had televisions, the Queen and Duke seemed like distant figures, so to be able actually to see them in our town was an indescribable thrill and something I will never forget.”
From the smiles and excitement at those days 67 years ago, the people of Bury, Ramsbottom and Tottington have had the Queen and the Duke as constants in their lives. They have seen Prince Philip live a life of duty to our country and every part of it—a man who was loving consort and everlasting support to Her Majesty the Queen, but who was also determined to make a positive difference. He was a naval hero, a founder member of the World Wildlife Fund, and a champion of science and technology.
There are many other achievements too numerous to mention, but Prince Philip’s legacy continues to inspire young people through the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme. In Greater Manchester, 11,000 young people are currently taking part in the DofE, and it was the Duke’s passion for education that brought him to Bury again, in 1976, to visit pupils at Bury Grammar School. It was reported that
“he talked and joked easily with a surprisingly large number of boys, who were astounded and gratified that even the fortunes of Bury FC had not entirely escaped royal notice.”
He was a truly great man, famous for a wonderful sense of humour, as comfortable running international organisations as talking with young people about their local football team. Together with my constituents in Bury, Ramsbottom and Tottington, we give our very sincere condolences to Her Majesty the Queen, and may His Royal Highness Prince Philip rest in peace—a life well lived.

Greg Smith: On behalf of everybody across the Buckingham constituency, I send my deepest condolences to Her Majesty and the whole royal family on the passing of His Royal Highness the Prince Philip.
I cannot add to the personal stories so eloquently told by right hon. and hon. Members, as I never had the pleasure of meeting His Royal Highness, but I want to put on the record my deep admiration for all that he achieved and sacrificed throughout his life—a life of service, charity and family. First and foremost, he will rightly be remembered for the incredible manner in which he has supported Her Majesty the Queen. In his own right, His Royal Highness completed 22,000 solo royal engagements. It has been wonderful to look through the collection of images from his various visits to Buckinghamshire published by the Bucks Free Press over the weekend. Likewise, constituents have been in touch with memories of the Duke attending the opening of the Anthony de Rothschild building at the University of Buckingham in 1996 and of a visit to Stowe in 2008.
Over his life, the Duke was associated with some 992 charities and organisations—too many to mention, but I highlight just a couple that I do not think have been brought out over the course of this afternoon. For 42 years, he served as president-in-chief of the British Racing Drivers Club, while his love of conservation led to his being patron of the British Association for Shooting and Conservation for more than half a century. While there have rightly been many references this afternoon to the wonderful Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme, my constituent and Buckinghamshire councillor Sir Beville Stanier informed me of another scheme that he competed in that Prince Philip pioneered—the Duke of Edinburgh’s Trophy, a worldwide competition for service units, once more demonstrating how His Royal Highness sought to promote excellence and to encourage people to be the absolute best that they can be.
His Royal Highness was indeed a remarkable man, dedicated to public service. His passing is rightly mourned across the whole of our United Kingdom, overseas territories, the Commonwealth and worldwide. May he rest in peace, and God save the Queen.

Jackie Doyle-Price: It is a pleasure to pay tribute to His Royal Highness Prince Philip. We have heard lots about his distinguished naval career, but the sea remained in his blood for the rest of his life. I thank him for all the support he gave the maritime sector and particularly highlight his contribution to bringing the Cutty Sark to Greenwich. It is now a permanent landmark and will be his lasting legacy here in London. I also refer to the fact that he came down to Thurrock to visit our then-newest port, London Gateway, in 2011 at his own request because of his genuine interest in ships and the sea. We are very grateful for all his support for the sector.
Prince Philip lived by the principle, “Never complain, never explain”, which given his good sense of humour and ability to put people at ease was often taken out of context by some elements of our press. However, the Great British public reached their own view of Prince Philip—they loved him. I genuinely hope that the outpouring of affection we have witnessed over the past few days is of real comfort to Her Majesty the Queen and the royal family as they mourn his loss.